After we were picked up from the airport and driven to the hotel, the magical adventure began. Riding the Douro Valley was just magnificent. The scenery and landscape could not be compared to anything I've seen before. Riding consisted of 35 to near 50 miles each day with elevations of 3,000-4,500 feet gain at an average 5-8% grade. On the last day of riding, the most difficult of all, we experienced a 16% grade that seemed to go on forever. Every day presented itself with great challenges wonderful pleasures and fantastic downhills that would go for 6-7 miles at speeds of 25+ mph. WOW!!
Our group was small with 7 riders plus 2 guides. The locations we stopped at were local places giving you a sense of real Portugal.
The people running the tour couldn't be better. They address every need from the group. We used carbon bikes from Scott that performed flawlessly even when riding on cobblestone which was in almost every town or village.
I can't speak highly enough about this adventure. However, that said, be sure to come well trained with lots of hill climbing under your seat because it's challenging everyday.
We were based in Cascais, near Lisbon for 12 days and after just getting back into cycling I needed to keep it up. LiveLoveRide were by far the easiest to work with in tailoring just what we needed. A guided tour 4 times over the 12 days for a morning each time. The bikes were amasing and set up ready for us to use. We were met at our apartment by Rodrigo who was great at making us feel confident on the ride and also coaching us when needed up the hills (thank you). We had some great fun and saw lots of the rides around Cascais and Sintra that are amasing. Thank you Rodrigo and Pedro and looking forward to coming again shortly for some more cycling.
