Steven De Jongh | ginovandewalle.com

35th Volta ao Algarve, Part II

Written by Gino on February 22, 2009 – 12:18 pm -

The 35th Tour of the Algarve is taking place during this week. Today, the riders are doing the final stage in between Vila do Bispo and Portimão, in the Western part of the Algarve. As I am living in the Eastern part of it, and as it is a beautiful day, I am not going to watch today. I am going to relax a bit, and enjoy the beautiful sunshine over here. Yesterday however, the fourth stage of this year’s tour was a time trial between Castro Marim and Tavira. This is exactly where I live, as Vila Nova de Cacela is right in the middle of those two ancient Portuguese cities.

Obviously, I spent the whole day outside, and after having gone to Castro Marim in order to get a list with the starting order of the riders, I went to one of the mountains where all the riders had to pass. I know these roads pretty well, as I am cycling every now and then along them, suffering enormously on my mountain bike. For me, these are like “Cols de Première Categorie” in the Tour de France. My best time for the 35 kilometers in between Castro Marim and Tavira is around two hours. These professional athletes do the distance in about 40 minutes. So, I need more than twice as much time as they do. But then again, I am more than twice their age, and my weight is about twice as much as theirs… And I don’t have to win the Tour de France anymore.

However, I guess nobody is perfect. In my enthusiasm, I was taking a lot of pictures. But… I had forgotten to charge the battery of my camera the night before. Therefore, unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of stage winner Alberto Contador, who was climbing the mountain (where I was watching) at an incredible speed. But I took some pictures of other cyclists, most of them Belgian, or riders who are pretty popular in my home country.

I think next year, I will take some more time off and see a bit more of the 36th Volta ao Algarve.