Last week we completed our toughest guided tour so far - riding from Portugal's highest city, Guarda, to the Vila Real de Santo António at the mouth of the Guadiana river. The Eastern Explorer covered around 600km over nine days of riding but also involved more than 7,000m of climbing. Along the way we crossed three regions… Continue reading The Toughest Yet
I've just been sent a whole load of pictures from one of the riders on the Border Castles Tour we ran in April. (Next one is in October.) Previous posts have talked about this tour so I won't write much. Instead I've picked out some of my favourite pictures. Thanks for sharing them, Bruce!
For me, cycling has always been about much more than just turning the pedals and clocking up the miles (or kilometres), whether back home in England or touring through another country. That's why on the guided tours I'm running in Portugal I try to emphasise the fact that it's all about what we see - and… Continue reading It’s All About The Experience
Sunshine, the sounds of cicadas and birdsong, the smell of hawthorn blossom and cistus bushes, carpets of wildflowers...today's ride was like the best of spring and summer rolled into one. Combine all of the above with almost traffic-free roads and you might begin to appreciate why I just adore cycling in Portugal's Alentejo at this… Continue reading Pure Bliss – Sunday Ride In The Alentejo
We're flying back to Portugal this afternoon to get ready for the next Pedal Portugal guided cycle tour - this time for a new route. The Border Castles Tour goes through some of my favourite bits of the Alentejo. We start in Évora and over the next 10 days do an anti-clockwise circuit into the north-east corner of… Continue reading Ready To Ride
Here's some inspiration for anyone thinking of a trip to Portugal... not my work but a gallery of photos from Bulgarian rider Nora Gavazova. I was able to help Nora with some route advice while she was in the Alentejo earlier this year and she kindly sent me these pictures. She's also added some useful… Continue reading Alentejo gallery
It's taken a few months of work but the first Pedal Portugal guidebook has just been published. As far as I'm aware there are no other guides like it so hopefully it'll be a hit! The Alentejo Circuit is now out in both both print and Kindle versions - and hopefully will be number one in… Continue reading First Guidebook
The first Pedal Portugal guidebook should be available this autumn - a print and ebook version of the Alentejo Circuit.The whole project is a bit of an experiment as I have no idea what kind of a market exists for guidebooks to cycling in Portugal. On the other hand, I'm having enormous fun writing them!My… Continue reading Guidebooks Coming
I've been checking over some of the touring routes on Pedal Portugal and decided something was missing from my Alentejo Circuit... the beach! The Alentejo has some of the prettiest and least developed bits of coast in southern Portugal so it seemed wrong to completely leave it off a route designed to give cyclists a… Continue reading Let’s Go To The Seaside!
So what do you fancy? Cycling through remote villages that look as if they haven't changed in centuries, blasting across the Alentejo plains to get to the Algarve or pottering up the coast of Portugal? After several months of work, I've at long last completed my overhaul of the Touring Routes pages - which include all… Continue reading Ready To Ride
Pedal Portugal 