After all the wedding shenanigans It’s finally time for a report on this year’s Tour of
Portugal, so here goes….
A slight change of format for this year’s Tour with no
prologue on the Friday, instead we were straight into a long day with two
special stages. The terrain was good and fast flowing with some very tricky
navigation at times and whilst I didn’t get lost I did have a couple of
occasions when I started to doubt I was on the right route and doubled back to
check, only to discover I was on the correct track. Indeed on each occasion,
had I continued only a few hundred metres I would have reached a distinctive junction
that would have confirmed I had taken the right track? I product of a year
without any road book practice I guess.
A long day ended fairly uneventfully with the one problem
being the side stand pivot bolt coming loose, luckily I spotted it at a fuel
stop and it was easily resolved.
As noted the second special stage was pretty much the same
as the first and I arrived back in Pampilhosa da Sera after 230km, after
finishing at the hotel, I did a quick run down the hill to the petrol station
to refuel and use the jet wash, the bike wasn’t particularly dirty but it does
make maintenance that much easier.
I ended the day in 18th
place, not exactly ideal but still in the top third of the field I guess.
Apart from the aforementioned side stand issue the bike ran
faultlessly and needed very little maintenance that evening apart from a top up
of oil which is a regular feature of running an eleven year old bike I guess
and a clean air filter, which wasn’t strictly necessary but because I could, a
check of the brake pads (all OK) and some oil on the chain and I was done.
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