Over Fóia to the Alentejo

Day eight of the Algarve trip was the big one. I rolled out of Silves at half past seven on a clear, still Sunday morning with a plan to go up and over Fóia, the highest point in the Algarve, drop off the far side into the Alentejo, and come home the long way round through Ourique and Castro Verde. It was already 19°C as I set off, with barely a breath of north-easterly wind, and the climbing came first.

The opening kilometres were an easy warm-up west along the valley through Porto de Lagos and onto the EN266, the road that would carry me all the way up to the summit. At Rasmalho I paused for the storks: a tall pole by the road carried great untidy nests, with the birds standing on top as if they owned the place. It was the first of the day’s highlights, and one of the sights of southern Portugal I never tire of.

I reached the top just before ten. It was clear, with the plains hazy far below, and I took the best part of three-quarters of an hour over it: a selfie by the summit stone in pink, the colour of the Maglia Rosa, the Giro’s race leader’s jersey (fair enough after the day’s only HC climb), and the bike propped on the cobbles. Then it was down the north side, nearly 30 km of mostly downhill past Nave Redonda and out of the Algarve altogether.

The Alentejo is a different world on a bike: open, rolling country, long straight roads and hardly any traffic, though it was never quite flat: Garmin flagged two Cat 4 climbs between Luzianes and São Martinho das Amoreiras. I stopped in Santa Clara-a-Velha, again at Aldeia das Amoreiras and then at Ourique, keeping the bottles full as the day warmed up. By Ourique I was 120 km in and it was twenty to three. Across the whole ride just 182 vehicles passed me.

At the top, 574 m up, I stopped for a selfie by the sign with the evening sun behind the mast; it was quarter to seven and I still had 45 km to go. From there it was nearly all downhill, and I touched 75 km/h, my fastest of the day, coming off the ridge past Sítio das Éguas, through Marreiros and São Bartolomeu de Messines, then one last sting, a 1.7 km rise just past Messines, before the final lumps back to Silves.

I rolled into Silves just after sunset, more than 13 hours after leaving that morning, and the best part of 10 of them spent pedalling. Garmin reckoned I’d sweated out around seven and a half litres over the day. Storks, Fóia, a street full of umbrellas and a ridge of turbines – a long day, and a good one.