THE BIG RIDE Notes from a small What São Miguel, the largest of The Azores archipelago lacks in size, it more than makes up for in punch... island... WORDS JOHN WHITNEY PHOTOGRAPHY JOBY Sessions ão Miguel is one of nine reputation as a mountain biker’s volcanic islands that paradise, there was next to nothing make up The Azores online about what its roads were like archipelgo situated in to ride. What little information I the North Atlantic ocean found was critical: too many cars, and lying 850 miles off narrow, badly surfaced roads, the west coast of nowhere to hire bikes… Portugal. While riding You can’t take a few forum posts around, Spinal Tap’s as gospel, and I was reassured by Nigel Tufnel and his all- Andrew Straw, the founder of the-way-to-11 amps came to mind. cycling holiday company Saddle In places, this lush green island, Skedaddle, who’s just set up its first with its abundance of tight lanes and road tours on the island and who had lactate guzzling climbs, feels as if it set up our trip. could act as a stand-in for our own. I had two people for company, Then it’ll throw in a curve ball that Nuno Cordeiro and Rosa Costa, the reveals it to be a landscape painted island guide and business manager on a far grander canvas. respectively of Futurismo, an It may measure just 40 miles Azorian adventure company based across and 10 miles in width but with in the capital, Ponta Delgada, who a height of 1103m at the summit of are assisting Skedaddle locally. São Pico da Vara (only Ben Nevis and Miguel born and bred, each was Carn Eige top it in the UK), São fluent in the island’s history. Nuno, Miguel isn’t short on drama. a walking Azores encyclopedia, was Roads rise sharply from the coast, behind the wheel in the trailing van, pass up through dense woodland and Rosa was Lycra-ed up and ready and volcanic crater lakes before to jump out and ride. She knows plunging straight back down again. every strip of tarmac on this island Farmers’ fields are nurtured on and was happy to choose her battles. steep inclines that threaten to fold Skedaddle’s holiday itinerary in on themselves. Sulphur gas burps averages around 45 miles over six out from deep beneath the earth and days but I’d just one to see the the close proximity of the north and island, and so asked Nuno to plot me south coastlines disorientates to the a route that took in the best of it point where you’re not quite sure without me having to hitch a lift in where you are. To go with Tufnel’s the van. I knew it would be around fuzzy logic, it’s an island where 80 miles, but had no clue as to the everything is one louder. elevation involved, though I only had to look up to know I was in for plenty of work. If, like John, you love the climbs this I’d actually hesitated about heading “There’s flat and then there’s could be the ideal to São Miguel. As beautiful as it Azorian flat,” warned Nuno, with a place for you looked in photos, and while it had a smile, early on. Flat roads in São 196 | July 2015 | CYCLING PLUS CYCLING PLUS | July 2015 | 197 THE BIG RIDE Miguel, as it turns out, are what but for the island to be as verdant as was often a case of pouring tarmac on São Miguel and some have taken cyclists in southeast England call the The climb out of Sete this, you have to accept the rough over them. Vehicles plus time equals Top right What a back-to-basics approach to their Surrey Hills. with the smooth. It rains a lot here – a sketchy descent. On the whole the goes up, must work. It adds to the off-the-beaten- Cidades was typical of around 1400mm annually – but Rosa roads are in pretty good nick and for come down. track feel I enjoyed about the place. At last... The only way is up insists its reputation for heavy Brits, given what we have to put up The climb out of Sete Cidades was what I discovered – very Nuno dropped me off just outside rainfall isn’t entirely deserved. “I’ll with on our own roads, there was Above John and typical of what I discovered – very out more roadies and motorists have Ponta Delgada, in the village of hear on Portuguese radio that it’s nothing too awkward. island guide Rosa direct, very steep – and there’s become increasingly aware of how Relva, right in the middle of some direct, very steep raining here but I look out the Plenty of extended sections of enjoy the view something quite demoralising about they must drive past cyclists. down to Sete ‘Azorian flat’. It was the main road window and see that it isn’t! We get cobbled roads remain on São Miguel, seeing a climb stretched so far out in Cidades on this part of the island, the EN1- more than the mainland but it’s most notably the road round the front. Ignorance is indeed bliss. 1A, a 2.5-mile stretch that averaged nature’s started to reclaim. Built at spread throughout the year, there’s Lagoa das Furnas crater at the end Middle right Another steep descent brought I returned to the point where I took Feeling the burn, 2% until a right turn up towards the Above The island’s great expense in the ’80s, it opened no rainy season, and it tends to come of our ride. Add to this its steep me back onto the main road, EN1- the right turn up to Sete Cidades, John remained summit of the Lagoa Azul crater near climate creates a for a few years but has been shut down in heavy bursts. It’s very rare climbs and you wonder why more 1A, and through the towns of Ginetes but instead took another right to blissfully ignorant very scenic and Sete Cidades. I was on a carbon BH since 1990. It now lies abandoned to have a complete day with rain.” pro teams don’t come here ahead of of the gradients and Feteiras. Again, this is a main traverse the centre of the island vibrant green bike (rented locally, so already and its architecture and classics season. Perhaps it’s the until it was all over road on the island and it’s empty. and an idyllic lunch by the sea at backdrop to our ride contradicting one of the complaints surroundings bring to mind what Training ground unpredictable weather or because The ’90s saw a major upgrade to the Ribeira Grande. Bottom right I’d read of São Miguel). And apart Jurassic Park might look like 25 years Most people would see the long, the riding is too difficult at that time island’s road networks, with major From there it’s the biggest climb A quick freshen from the ubiquitous tractors, it after the dinosaurs ran riot. One of steep descent into Sete Cidades as of year. It could even be that the road up before tackling roads continuing to be opened as of the day, six miles and a smidgen seemed I was on remarkably empty its main selling points were the payback for the climb, but I’ve cycling world doesn’t know about more of the recently as 2011. This one perhaps under 3000ft, to the highest point roads (which chalks off another). views it could offer of the crater, but always been one for going uphill this island, we certainly didn’t. island’s climbs isn’t the best example, but towards accessible by road above the Lagoa That right turn was the cue for the nobody twigged that for so many rather than down, never more so A common sight in Sete Cidades, the north east of São Miguel, traffic do Fogo crater. Fortunately (I think) start of a steeper, irregular climb of days of the year a heavy morning than here. The gradients towards and one familiar throughout the has been diverted away from the I left my Garmin at home. I used my five miles and over 1000ft. Just mist would descend and ruin it. the bottom are horrible – always island, is the use of horse and carts. smaller roads and the result is a road iPhone to map the ride so had no before the summit, and the Rosa says it would even seep into over 10% and up to 25 – and the The financial crash hit São Miguel cyclist’s dream. For a long time Rosa idea about gradients or climbing spectacular viewpoint above the guests’ rooms. surface was poor in places. Many hard. More cows (300,000) than had doubts about the suitability of until I finished. All I knew was that crater, was the ghost hotel of Monte We were fortunate that our trip roads in São Miguel were cobbled people (240,000) in The Azores the roads for a cycling holiday, but this was among the hardest Palace, a derelict structure that coincided with a spell of blue skies once upon a time and resurfacing makes farming the biggest industry no longer. Investment has brought sustained spells of climbing I’d 198 | July 2015 | CYCLING PLUS CYCLING CYCLING PLUS PLUS | | June July 2015 | 199 THE BIG RIDE From initial hesitation São Miguel proved to be a revelation, simply a mind- blowing cycling experience done.