Portugal 2018 Monchique

Hue Thomas and his wife Carloyn offer rides for groups in Portugal and he has a wonderful web site, PedalPortugal.com On the site he posts many day rides around Portugal, 2 are in the Lagos area and one shows a loop up to a high point called Monchique.

In 2016 I tried a couple times to go in the counter clockwise direction and never got very far. In 2017 on my first day I made it around and then failed twice in the clockwise direction. Following this same advise in 2018, I wanted to hit Monchique on my first day, before I had a chance to remember how hard it is or get lazy.

I have used Megasport for bike rental for all 3 years. We communicated by my new phone and met at a Lagos gate at like 9:30 Thursday morning. After my hill failures in 2016, I requested a lower gear in 2017 but they were unable to deliver. This year I was very specific. The lowest gear on a normal road bike is 32 in back. I asked them for 34, they said they could and did! Or at least I assume they did. I got up most of the hills but I never counted the teeth.

Off I went to attack in the clockwise direction. I bushwhacked out of Lagos, as my Guesthouse is nearest a gate I have never used and stopped at a launching point East of town. Found I had left the new phone in my room!!! I stopped a rider at the beginning of the track and reviewed with him the turns I have to make. There are no pictures of the ride! I remember the sweat blinding me and constantly having to stop and wipe my eyes. I never had to walk but really remember nothing of what had to be a very painful ride until I got to the top. I had no access to maps. My plan was to eat on the way down. I did not want to eat and then face more pain. A sign said Lagos and I turned down. I soon realized that I was on a different road than I had intended for my decent but it would be crazy to climb back up. I just followed signs and saw nothing familiar. I came to a roundabout that clearly wanted to put me on the A22, the super highway in the area. I had no intention of doing that.

I soldiered on, ended up on a poorer road and hit a pot hole too fast. The front tire blew. I changed it and proceeded. This was the first time in my life I have ever changed a flat alone on the road. I always call in land/sea/rescue (usually my wife) and effect the repair in my garage. I finally came out on the road I use to leave Lagos when I am going East, R125 and proceeded home. I stopped at the local bike store, bought another spare tube (one always travels with 2) and the very helpful mechanic allowed me to use his pump. He examined the flat and said it was a pinch flat. The person who put the tube in the tire was not careful to have the tube be flat so it had a “pinch” in it that blew when I hit the pot hole. This mechanic also filled my tires with more air pressure saying that such helped prevent pinch flats.

I was able to pioneer a new shorter route to return to my Guesthouse. Then shower, wash bike cloths and out to Baffi Bar for a drink. My one picture from this first biking day is of my dinner at Cantinho Algarvio.

I think this is the best of the 100 Portuguese restaurants in Lagos. It is nice too as I can talk to the people at the table next to me. This night the couple recommended the same restaurant I like in a western town, Vila do Bispo and the man had a medical upset so they had to leave quickly. As usual, I return to Baffi Bar for a few hours and then to bed.

Since I came down Moncheque the wrong way Thursday and had no lunch, I was dumb enough to want to try again Friday. This day I am taking pictures. I probably was on the road before 9am. Below is my new route out of town, through the gate that is very close to my Guesthouse.

A selfie at the start of the day:

DISASTER, another flat just out of town AND when I put on the other spare from Megasport, it too seems to be flat and I have to put on the tube I bought yesterday on the way back into town.

The second spare works but now I have no spares so I turn around and go back to the bike shop and buy 2 more spares and he shows me that the Megasport spare was not really defective, just ornery.

It is just after 10am so I decide to try again, take off to the next town Odiaxere, and use a route out of town that I perfected last year and is the same one I used yesterday.

There is a windmill plaza behind the town.

Another selfie. And a couple ride by! Always in search of company, I quickly head off to follow them. BUT have to come back as my real glasses were too slow getting on the leaving train. I had them off to dry as it has started to rain. As I rode down the hill after the couple one of the few still active parts of my 71 year old brain said “wait, there is something wrong with the view”.

I caught up with the couple and road with them for a K or two. If you look carefully at what their bikes are carring, you see that it is too much for just a day ride, like mine, but too little for overnight. The secret is that they are “supported”, going inn to inn. They have reservations and the Inn owners move their bags onto the next night’s lodging. This allows them to stay in small towns without riding as a pack mule. I think they started in Sagras Thursday and spent last night near Lagos. You will also note that more rain has started.

I don’t take pictures of the hills! I was trying to keep track of them this second day up and I think there are 4 bad stretches. The 34 gear in the back really makes it possible. Thursday I did a fair amount of counting. I don’t look up so I don’t see how long the hill goes. I just count 50 or 100 strokes and then look up or just keep my head down until I feel the road flattening. It was easier the second time even with rain. The rain gets on my glasses so I ride most of the way with them off. I always say as long as I am suffering with the running or hills, the rain is such a minor annoyance as to be insignificant. Finally the worst is over and this is the turn and signs that tell me so.

Below is the restaurant where I finally got food on my 2017 counter clockwise success.

And this is the bus protection across the street and the drowned rat in it.

A little further along we see the second restrauant where I tried and failed to get food in 2017.

Finally the first restaurant where I failed to get food in 2017, and get it today and you can JUST see the bike on the porch.

The lunch. I even got to sit on the Portuguese side instead of the tourist side. It is pig’s cheeks!

The eloquent eater: I have taken off the wet cloths and dawned the fleese and wind breaker from my pack.

And finally the correct road to turn right on for the decent.

I must have been feeling particularly proud as I walked the bike over to my bar, Baffi Bar to show the owner Valentina what I look like on the road. I was never tempted to try Monchique again on this trip! I also might point out that if you look closely at the map at the beginning of this page, the red line is a circular path BUT there is a little blip at the top. That is were the route but NOT this rider, climb what most people refer to as Monchique. I’m happy to allow others to think I have done more than I have.