2017 Portugal Enduro Series Round 4, Terras de Bouro - Race Recap

This past weekend, riders hit the road again to get to the known area of Terras de Bouro in Northern Portugal. All the region belongs to the Peneda-Gerês National Park, with the highest protection level due to its peculiar flora, fauna, and geography. It's also known to have some of the best Portuguese trails and wine. I still can't say which is better.

After the third round in Sao Bras de Alportel in June, the top spots in the Elite category were taken by Emanuel Pombo, Marfo Fidalgo, and João Rodrigues. In the Elite women's category, Ana Leite took the lead. In the Master 50 category, the overall has been determined already as rider, Jose Salgueiro from Xdream2Rodas/Moto Clube Faro won the three first races and there are just two left. In other categories, riders were ready to fight fiercely for the victory. Riders as Hélder Padilha, Lino Correia, and João Gomes in Master 30 and Esteban Lorenzo and David Guerra in Master 40 put a hell of a fight on the trails for the podium.

The race consisted on 36 kilometers with around 1,520 meters of cumulative climbing and 2,100 meters of descending, spread over six stages. The longest one, stage two of three kilometers and the shortest, the fourth with 1.4 kilometers. For Sunday, temperatures were expected to be more gentle but on Saturday the sun and dusty conditions played an important factor for riders endurance. It was important to hydrate and take it slowly, or the next day your legs would suffer.

All first three stages started from the same point, good for the public to socialize between riders as they waited for their run. Everyone agreed that the second stage was the best one, a bike park for enduro with all kind of natural features, berms, jumps, rock gardens, fast sections, slow and technical sections, everything was included. The fourth stage was fast and quick, with no technical sections, just pedal as hard you could. The fifth and sixth stages demanded more from riders, with already some kilometers on their legs, these stages needed a big effort for racers to finish in one piece.

Emanuel Pombo and Ana Leite were the final winners of the Elite categories so they have secured their general classification for the series. The next and last stop will be in September, in the Maia region.

All results can be found here, the official Portuguese Cycling Federation website.

























Waiting for the results.

Master 40 and Master 50.


Master 30 and Junior categories.

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MENTIONS: @russianyaz

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