Porto - Castelo Branco   

The oldest 1-day race in Portugal starts in Porto city center and heads inland crossing the mighty Serra da Estrela and finishes in one of the steepest climbs in Castelo Branco. There are a lot of hard climbs during the course and obviously a lot of downhills, too. Many of those downhill roads are very small, and due to that if you don't have a good technique you might have some problems.

There are a total of 5 climbs...

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The oldest 1-day race in Portugal starts in Porto city center and heads inland crossing the mighty Serra da Estrela and finishes in one of the steepest climbs in Castelo Branco. There are a lot of hard climbs during the course and obviously a lot of downhills, too. Many of those downhill roads are very small, and due to that if you don't have a good technique you might have some problems.

There are a total of 5 climbs during the race. The hardest one is the last one. A 1st category climb to Almaceda. 10km at 8,1% of pure pain for everyone. The problem comes before. Very few reach the bottom of the last climb with the front group. In the end, there's normally a sprint between 3 or 4 riders and you need to be on top of your form to be the winner!

If you ever win this race, your name will be alongside with names like Dirk Herman (Telek@m), Elias Holmström (Ponsbach CST) and Sterling Dorsher (FFL). Anastasio Montanes (Águias do Guadiana) was the first ever Portuguese rider to be on the podium and it took 7 editions to reach that. Much is expected from the Portuguese climbers. But very few is delivered unfortunately.