This was on my list to do before we moved, and I finally finished the full thing today! Woohoo!

What is it? It is a 49km long rail-to-trail conversion between Viseu and Santa Comba Dão. This trail is my daily ride, and I am pretty spoiled.

I did 101km in 4 hours and 36 minutes with 619m of elevation gain (there and back). I took it nice and slow as I have been training and just trying to get a lot of hours in my bike seat.

I realized that if I want to do a bike tour, I need to do it now, so I will take a trip across Spain in mid-May (we are moving this summer, plus we are visiting family in the USA).

I will start in Salamanca and bike across Spain, through Zaragoza, up around the corner of the Pyrenees to a small town called Ille sur Têt (in France). The weather should be cooler, which will help, given Spain’s intense summer heat.

What are the stats?

• ~1,050km
• ~8,500 meters up and 9,310 down.
• The route I’ve mapped should be 70% gravel and 30% pavement. Hopefully, the gravel is a little more defined than in France, as I found myself hiking through random forests with no path a few times in France (not to mention the field routes that didn’t always work out). But that is also part of the adventure!
• I will do it over ~17 days of riding. I will try something new this year where every 5th day is a rest day and see if that balances me out. I get so excited that I overdo it in the first 7 to 10 days.

Training?

Because of the late start and dates I was confined within, I didn’t get as much training as I would like. It would have been better if I had not gotten a cold over our Bordeaux spring break. It won’t be as bad as my Portugal Camino tour in 2021. And I’ve got two more weeks to train, so hopefully, I can get to a good spot.

Why Ille sur Têt?

There is a fantastic French bike company that is based there. I will do a bike fitting with them for a custom frame for a new bike (gravel)! Then I will take the train with my bike to Bordeaux, finish signing on our new house, park my bike there, and fly back to Porto to organize the move. Huzzah!

Almost one year ago, we did our first father/son bike adventure weekend! We decided to do that same ride as it was so beautiful (and I hoped to do more).

Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t as good this year, and we had more cold, rain, and trail flooding. The river was high compared to last year. And since Calico has been sick and has a nasty cough, we kept it easy with a lot of rest. I was also pretty exhausted as I was training for a bike tour and physically exhausted.

We had fun and spent a good chunk of time just relaxing/exploring.

What did we get up to?

Thursday

We woke up early and drove 2 hours later to our little Airbnb.

We hopped on our bikes and did a 20km ride over 1 hour and 35 minutes.

This was our warm/sunny day, so we didn’t want to lose it. We went to my favorite ice cream place in Portugal and then crashed. We were both pretty exhausted.

Friday

It was supposed to rain all day, so we drove North and explored the Minho River and coast. We stopped at Jeni’s dinner for some onion rings, a milkshake for Calico, and delicious burgers. Randomly, we ran into some visitors from Arkansas at the dinner :)

Saturday

We waited for the rain to clear and did a 26km ride over 2 hours and 26 minutes. We had fun even if the trails were somewhat flooded! The sun came out by the end :)

Sunday

We thought about biking as it was sunny, but Calico’s cough didn’t improve, and we were both tired. So we played a bit of soccer and drove home.

Good times! I am looking forward to some new trails this summer :)

We are moving to Bordeaux after Calico’s school term ends… so we drove there to check out neighborhoods and have some fun. We toured the school he is going to be at next year, ate a lot of delicious food, and walked around a lot of neighborhoods! It is a really cool city!

The only bummer is I got a head cold the day after taking Calico to the beach (we dug a fun hole in the ground). So, I only got one bike ride in for the entire two weeks. Oh well, I am looking forward to more rides once we get settled.

We went to an illusion museum, which Calico loved!

And somewhat crazily, we are buying a house…

I had arranged for us to see some houses and apartments to get a feel for the market. We knew that in a year, we were likely going to be looking to buy but had planned on renting (a really tough rental market, though). We walked into the 3rd house we were looking at and just loved it. It is close to Calico’s school, a giant park, and the perfect distance from the city center. We made an offer on Easter Saturday weekend, and now we are doing the paperwork. Hopefully, we can pick up the keys in early June! Fun!!

It is HUGE compared to the very small apartment we are renting right now. It has a wonderful outdoor area (although small), and the kitchen is well done. And we are excited as it has a huge 3rd floor bedroom for guests when they visit. I can’t wait to move in, especially as I am going to buy a record player we’ve been saving for!!!

As it warms up, I am trying to do more weekend adventures with Calico (and I am trying to do a better job in Winter to get us both excited about suiting up and going outside). We went on a nearby trail ride I found on All Trails, did some climbing, saw a snake, and talked. It was fantastic!

I love this bike!

I’ve put over 22,000km on this bike in the last 4 years, and it has been rock solid.

What tours have I done with it?

• Our 2020 European road trip
• My 2021 Camino Portuguese tour
• My 2022 Via Francigena Italy tour.
• My 2023 Bordeaux to Paris to Mont St. Michel tour

Plus, all my day-to-day rides. I’ve taken it on gravel as much as possible and done some pretty insane routes through fields and forests on tours.

The back hub did crack slightly last year. The Tout Terrain guys said there was a structural problem with the design, and I bought a much stronger replacement from them. Otherwise, it has been problem-free.

I got it equipped with a Pinion P1.18 (internal gearing), and I hope never to use a chain again. Internal gearing is the best! I just have to swap the oil once a year, and it is such an easy setup. I’ve used the same Kevlar belt for 4 years, and it might have another 4 years in it.

The only thing I’ve changed is added a Thudbuster ST seat post, swapped in new puncture-resistant tires, removed the front rack, and switched the seat a few times.

I highly recommend their bikes; pretty amazing touring bikes.