The wine shimmers in dark orange tones in the glass, exuding an aroma of vanilla, caramel and cherries. A delight that is followed by regret when you get up. But the next morning in the saddle, the throbbing in the temples fades and gives way to amazement at the beauty of this landscape. Wisps of mist bathe the valley in a soft light. Until the sun eats them away and reveals the curves of the Rio Douro. Small ripples glisten silvery in the morning sun. The bright green of the vine leaves competes with the whitewashed houses. In spring, orange, lemon and cherry blossoms provide colourful splashes of colour. The Douro Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of the most beautiful wine-growing regions in Europe. Wine is grown here on 40,000 hectares, predominantly port wine, but now also more and more red wine, "Tinto". Thousands of kilometres of walls run through the vines and delimit the narrow terraces on the slopes, which are up to 35 percent steep. The small roads do not climb quite so steeply over the mountains. And yet cycling here is no walk in the park. There are plenty of metres in altitude
You can find these routes in the PDF download:
Tour 1: Among wolves
88 kilometres, 1,800 metres in altitude, maximum gradient of 16 per cent
Tour 2: Climbing in the nature park
117 kilometres, 2,700 metres in altitude, maximum gradient of 14 per cent
Tour 3: River trip
102 kilometres, 2,100 metres in altitude, maximum gradient of 15 per cent
Tour 4: Lamego bike circuit
68 kilometres, 1,780 metres in altitude, maximum gradient of 18 per cent
GPS DATA: TOUR offers the tour data for free download. You can download the tracks in GPX format directly onto a GPS device or view them on your computer in Google Earth or Google Maps.
