Portugal Day 9...

...perfect ending of a nine day race. At breakfast I wasn't sure how I felt. Food is less and less fun but I managed to get some awesome buns with some freshly stirred berry jam in me before departure. It was a later start so had lots of time to get ready. Was early at the start line for a change! It was already hot but 99km is just a "short" day so not to worry. The legal get the real test right off the battle; your role a bit more than a km down the road before a steep climb right back up. I left the group with not much effort so I figured today I might as well just go hard and no looking back, the legs felt good. Henry only had to gain 7 min so if I let him catch me and couldn't hang on that could have easily been eaten up, so with ok legs no point of holding back.

From here I started looking back more often. Got an update from my dad and the main group had not gained too much. From there and in I pulled what I had but knowing I had a few steep climbes and the beach yet to go. At the beach I saw Paul and one more guy starting as I was about halfway. Tried to run; not for me, so walked.... Picked up the pace slightly as I thought it Henry back there. We then do a couple of up and down and as I was climbing the other side of one of the valleys I could see Marco on the other side going down. Its hard to know how much time that is but with about 30 km to go the race is still on and I thought maybe I can hold it to the end. I tried not to look back as its easy to make a stupid mistake when not watching where your going; just rode as hard as I could. When we finally start going down toward Sagres and I couldn't see anyone I was really hoping I would hold. Watching every rock to avoid a last km flat and with the strong tailwind it went by fast. <br>
Made it in! First stage win! A few min back came Marco. Now we were watching the time gap to Rui. He had 11 min on me for second. Someone said Vitor had dropped back and was riding with him. 8 min I took in....putting him in second with only 3 almost 4 min ahead of me. Very tight! I think he is happy he had Vitor today. Great day of racing! Now we hung at the beach; had a great banana split and expresso before a dip in the ocean. Katy came in with a great smile and rocks in her pocket that she collected; good thing for light weight gear! Dad was happy with the day and even thouh it was super hot he honored the day with wearing the Ridleys kit! Great trip and met some more awesome bike crazy people with similar passion for the sport as I have. And most likly some of us will cross path again. Happy Riding!