A 500 Mile Ride Around Portugal
I suppose technically it should read “A 500 Miler Ride Around Northern Portugal”, but if you’re unfamiliar with Portuguese geography, you might think 500 miles is enough to lap this small country. More close to the facts, as I experienced in my recent ride around northern Portugal, 500 miles will net you a small sliver of the country.
I could continue talking about the ride, but I made a video about it here:
That explains much of the what/where/how. The why is fairly interesting too. See, Laura and I had it on our calendar to ride Portugal in late September/early October. But securing childcare for a week is challenging and longer than that is darn near impossible. Her trip was to go to Portugal and then stick around Europe for the UCI gravel world championships the next week. As much as she wanted some moral support, and a personal driver/mechanic/chef, I couldn’t pull off two weeks away from home. So I went the week prior to our regularly scheduled Portugal trip while she was home with the kids, then we overlapped in Europe when her mother was visiting and taking great care of them, then I flew home, relieved gramma, had a great week with the kids, before Laura returned home to complete our family again. Good planning all around!