STAGE 1 | CHAVES - PESO DA RÉGUA

First day nerves have us up at the crack of dawn. I slept very badly and think I only got about 3-4 hours. The air conditioning in the room was on the blink and the room was like a furnace. My mind was doing that thing where is flits from idea to idea and I could not get the bloody thing to shut down. I was not fretting about the race explicitly but I'm sure that must have been at the root of it. Or maybe it was the the huge pile of food I stuffed myself with last night. Either way, I am slightly groggy on race morning.

Today's stage was advertised to us as the 'easy opener' so we are feeling semi confident. We have analysed the profile and done some fag-packet calculations and figured out it would be like a good day in the Surrey hills. Lots of times up Box Hill but nothing drastic.109 km  with 1800m of climbing. The plan is to take it easy and ride conservatively. All the climbing will be done by 74k and it will be an easy ride to the finish. Mr. Crane didn't get the memo.

We get to the start line, get our obligatory pic taken and then wait for our slot. Official start time today is 11am and with our old age granting us a 14% head start on the young 'uns, we start at 10:26. We soon discover that this is not Surrey and Box Hill is nowhere in sight. The first little lump is not exactly hard but it puts us on notice that we are going to be working. That is followed by some nice gentle disused railway and then a couple of proper steep buggers before we get to the top of the last hill. 

We are feeling pretty fresh and that's when the plan goes out the window and we start working with a Belgian guy and are belting down the gravel track at 30-40k for the final hour. It is a blast but completely not in the playbook. The plan is to rest our legs for stage 3 which is apparently the bugger with two back to back difficult  climbs at the end. The red mist descends though, and we ride pretty hard. The stage ends suddenly just before this disused railway bridge and the track to the hotel continues on the other side. The official recommendation from the organizers is to climb up the bank and ride on the road to bypass it but they didn't object to us walking across.

The hotel is in the town of Regua and the views of the Douro are magnificent. This is the home of wine in Portugal and I have been looking forward to some tasty beverages, but sadly, this is not to be and we have to make do with an unbranded house red. Which is perfectly adequate...but doesn't quite match the billing. Probably for the best really. Such are the sacrifices us elite athletes have to make every day. :-)

At the end of the day we are lying in 38th and 39th position. This gives me a little frisson of pride but makes me worry... too bloody far up the table for 2 guys who have never raced before. Let's hope we can keep this up.  Everything is uphill from here.....the climb out of the valley is 1000m over 15k. Let's hope that today's frenetic chase to the finish line is not a problem tomorrow. Our mascot Gordon is still enjoying the ride.

The official race organizers video:

The route animation: