The chatter of a Portuguese soap opera emanates from the television in the corner pub in Tavira. Cigarette smoke fills the air. A few men are talking about football, about money, which is always too tight, and about the weather. Outside the pub, sardines are being grilled. In the street, a few young people are doing their laps on rickety bicycles. The professional cycling team "Ciclismo de Tavira" is based in the back room of the pub. Team boss Vidal Fitas, himself a former racing cyclist, is proud of the fact that professional cycling has been practised here in the east of the Portuguese Algarve for almost 30 years without interruption, since 1979 - albeit with changing sponsors. He therefore likes to talk about the "oldest professional cycling team in the world".
In their office, the cyclists have neatly framed the jerseys of the past decades behind glass. The first ones from the early 1980s were still made of wool. And the men from Tavira have always had the courage to use colour. Most of the jerseys are in canary yellow and garish pink. It must have looked pretty when the professionals from Tavira rolled through the hills of the Algarve hinterland in spring. Especially when, in February, the millions of white-pink almond blossoms conjure up a kind of winter landscape from the green, gently rolling hills of the low mountain ranges - with the cyclists from Tavira in the middle of it all as a colourful splash.
Fitas is just as proud of his home Algarve, which stretches from Cabo Sao Vicente, the most south-westerly point in Europe, to the Spanish border, as he is of his racing team. In the west, on the "Barlavento", the Algarve "lying in the wind", high pale red cliffs frame small sandy bays on three sides. Further east, in the "Sotavento", which faces away from the wind, wide sandy beaches dominate the coast and the protected lagoons. Rare bird species have their territory in the Rio Formosa Nature Park, which is similar to a mudflat. The local professionals and amateur cyclists, however, are drawn away from the coast to the hills of the hinterland, where in summer the noisy swarm of tourists disappears with every turn of the pedals.
You can find these tours in the PDF download:
TOUR1: At the limit
(155 kilometres, 1,950 metres in altitude, maximum gradient 14 percent)
Tavira - Conceiçao - Castro Marim - Azinhal - Foz de Odeleite - Alcoutim - Martim Longo
Foz de Odeleite - Alcoutim - Martim Longo -
Cachopo - Alcaria do Cume - Tavira
TOUR 2: Through farmland
(111 kilometres, 1,350 vertical metres, maximum gradient of ten percent)
Tavira - Santa Luzia - Fuzeta - Moncarapacho - Machados - Loulé - Querenca - Baranco Velho
Machados - Loulé - Querenca - Baranco Velho - São Brás de Alportel - Santa Catarina
São Brás de Alportel - Santa Catarina da Fonte
do Bispo - Prego - Tavira
TOUR 3: To the end of the world
(103 kilometres, 950 metres in altitude, maximum gradient eight percent)
Lagos - Bensafrim - Carrapateira - Vila do Bispo - Sagres - Cabo de São Vicente - Sagres - Burgau - Luz - Lagos
TOUR 4: To the roof of the Algarve
(35 kilometres, 2,100 metres in altitude, maximum gradient 14 percent)
Lagos - Meia Praia - Odiáxere - Casas da
Senhora do Verde - Monchique - Fóia - Farelo - Chilrão - Gralhos
Chilrão - Gralhos - Marmelete - Aljezur - Lagos
Downloads:
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