The next Pedal Portugal guidebook - 'Cycling The Algarve' - is on its way and I'm looking for test riders interested in trying out some of the routes. The new book will basically be in three parts. The first will be a touring route based on the existing Algarve Adventure, which is a six-stage route… Continue reading Test Riders Needed
Over the past few years I've spent many, many hours carefully putting together route maps for cyclists coming to Portugal and putting them on the Pedal Portugal website - but now Google seems to have messed up the lot! What is it with these companies that feel they have to keep changing things? I used the old version… Continue reading Oh Google Maps… Why, Why, Why?
I had a tough but wonderful ride into the hills of the Algarve today as I continue to check bits of the route for the next Pedal Portugal guidebook - which is going to cover the western half of the region. Although I've ridden quite a few of the roads involved (and am getting lots of guidance… Continue reading A Testing Test Ride
With most of Europe in the grip of winter, January seems a good time to put together a new touring route for Portugal's Algarve region - which provides some of the best opportunities for cycling anywhere on the continent at this time of year. Look carefully at a map and you can see how far down the Algarve… Continue reading Winter Riding
It's taken nearly two months but I'm finally updating the Pedal Portugal site with details of some great bikes in the north of the country. I've completed details of three rides so far. Well, possibly four as one ride is made up of two loops that could be done as two separate circuits. So far,… Continue reading Rides In The North
Completed a 41m/66km ride today through one of the quietest and most unspoilt corners of Portugal I've ever seen. After a couple of weeks in the far north, Carolyn and I are back in the Beira Alta, exploring the area just south of the Douro valley and just west of the Spanish border. I knew… Continue reading Wild & Wonderful
So happy to be back in Portugal - wonderful scenery, friendly people, great cakes, lots of fountains and flowers, car drivers who stop at pedestrian crossings... all good so far! We packed up our van on Friday - tandem, camping gear etc - and caught the ferry from Portsmouth to Santander. We'd been praying the… Continue reading Wonderful Start
Excitement is mounting here at Pedal Portugal HQ. And not just because Bournemouth Air Show is on at the moment and I've got fighter jets screaming through the skies above my house, flying upside down, doing loop the loops, and generally making a racket.No, the reason for the excitement is that in less than three… Continue reading Twenty Days And Counting
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
To some people, riding dozens of miles in a day isn't a challenge. One of my friends is a triathlete who regularly rides 50 miles (80km) every Saturday morning - often before his wife's even out of bed. Most others though have never reached that level of fitness, or it's something now in their past.… Continue reading The Gentle Option
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