Ewan's Cycling Blog

 There were some moments of this today Broken on the hill But it ended like this The end As is the tradition in southern Portugal, the day dawned bright and clear.  It looked like it was going to be another hot day.  Everybody seemed very cheery in the morning despite being kept awake during the night with the local club pumping out incredibly loud techno until 1:30am.  That was followed by a bunch of German Harley riders arriving in the hotel car-park at 3am and...insult/injury etc...the local dogs going absolutely mad for an hour starting at 6am.  I'm not sure the Hotel Colina dos Mouros is going to be getting good reviews on Trip Advisor. We had one drop out this morning because Paul's bike was completely broken.  Even given the high concentration of bike maintenance skills in the group, there was nothing we could do.  Paul, sadly, had to pack his bike and head to the airport.  See you next time Paul. Greg looking as cheery as ever A happy Karim.  Maybe he knew it would be o

 It was the trifecta of pain today.  A lot of tired and broken people at the end.  I am one of those broken people so the blog may be a little more perfunctory today and I may rely a bit more on photographs rather than witty and engaging writing.  Nobody can do witty and engaging text after a day like today. The day dawned bright and cool.  We all met for breakfast at the main hotel and got the bikes ready.  As usual, there was a lot of pumping tyres and a lot of odd stretching going on. Greg bowing to the sun...or something. Tony obsessively pumping up his tires to 110psi. Christopher looking cool and calm.  This would not last. Ashley doing his Michael Flatley impression. Godric and Paul looking both purposeful and oversaturated. The first 20km out of Vila Nova de Milfontes was insane.  Karim, Godric, Layton, Tim, Ashley and myself hammered along the road in a paceline at 30-35kmh in the cool morning air.  Eventually, I dropped off the elite group (the spectral Sean Kelly droned &quo