TransPortugal Day 3

Today was without a doubt the most beautiful day I've had on a bike in this lifetime. The Cerras Estrellas are jagged, flower covered in pink, purple and yellow, smell like cooking herbs (more astute palettes can probably identify the ones growing), and the weather was ideal. The surface was granular and drained, no mud. It was also a very hard day as we did 3 massive climbs, biggest for last. Descended Roman cobbles, forestry/farm paths, and pavement. The hotel is absolute, beautiful luxury. It's chic. It's chic and luxurious by like Aspen standards. I'm drained still to generate the right superlatives, but this has to be close to epic ride heaven.

Some people rise to the occasion of straight up and down mountain biking action, and one of those people is Climbing Craig. There's lots of racing stories that he can better describe, but the end result was he dropped everyone but two people today and finished third after the Belgian kid and the Spanish guy. Now what I've heard unfortunately is that the recording on his GPS wasn't on so it might not officially count, but it counts in my books as totally badass. I had a feeling that Mr. "I only get stronger the more I ride" Stappler would have a good showing here.

Jon had his best day yet, finishing 21st. It's a day well suited for him with huge climbs and great descents. And no bonking and visiting the local mini mercados!

Kate held on for 5th, which might move up with Craig's out. She was playing ping pong after and doing aggressive shots, and invited me to play. I felt like lying down would be a better plan.

I had a great day, not so much performance, but just feeling. Felt good in the morning, some energy from start to finish, even though the last climb was long. Enough anyway to get a bigger belly up the hills, didn't dab on any of the uphill singletrack. Rolled the downhills well, always fun. Finished off the last of my food with about 3k left to climb and hoped after scaling the Estrellas that we weren't going up the last climb on the horizon as it looked heinous along the opposing cliffs. I've hit empty every day and had to rely on a bit of spirituality every day to go on, at least today it was within a half hour of the top. Antonio doesn't make anything easy here. The Ibis Tranny is nothing short of perfect.