The Wahooligan Tour STAGE 4: On Location Portugal - Nazaré to Foz do Arelho

[Coach.Rupert.H]

The Wahooligan Tour STAGE 4: On Location Portugal - Nazaré to Foz do Arelho
Wednesday March 15

Welcome to Stage 4 of the Wahooligan Tour. Please use the thread to tell us about how your Tour is going so far!

We’re 3 stages down so think of today as the transition stage. Starting off at Nazaré, the legendary big wave surf capital of the world, today we’ll focus on our cadence and good form to build strength and efficiency. On each of the climbs, we’ll keep the cadence low, while on each decent we’ll increase our cadence and get the legs spinning, while maintaining a relaxed posture and breathing. We’ll finish up after 28km at the stunning Foz do Arelho beach. Along the way, we’ll check out some of the highlights of the area, including the beautiful fortified village of Obidos with its famous cherry liquor. Now we’re talking!

Remember, you have 50 hours to complete each stage. As long as it’s still today’s date anywhere on earth, you’re golden. Check out The Tour Challenge Page for details on stage open and close times.

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NEW for 2023 - Daily Challenges!

During each day of The Tour, the top fundraiser of the previous 24 hours will earn a Wahooligan Tour jersey, custom created by our friends at Cuore! The 24-hour block will run from midnight-to-midnight MDT (Boulder, CO, USA). We’re already underway for Day 1, so kick that fundraising up a notch and be the first to earn the jersey!

Find out more about some other challenges happening this week by visiting our Official Race Guide page.

Team competition is underway!
Right now, our top 24-hour fundraising TEAM earns a special prize – a group RGT ride with Sir Neal Henderson and former 7-Eleven team member Alex Stieda! The same rules apply as the individual competition: you have 24 hours for your team to raise the most money for the Davis Phinney Foundation. The competition ends tonight at midnight MDT (Boulder, CO, USA).

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You never ride alone.

Wahooligans unite! Join us on the Official RGT open road for your warm-ups, cool downs, or stage rides. Use the voice chat feature to talk about your Tour experiences so far with fellow riders.

Looking for something more intimate? Join fellow Team DPF members, Wahooligans, and VIPs on Zoom at 9 am MDT (Boulder, CO USA) during the tour - add this zoom link to your calendar to participate!
Zoom link: Launch Meeting - Zoom
Meeting ID: 885 6838 1159
Passcode: 610161

[TimWatson75]

About to suit up, and head out the castle gates once more. This one looks a bit like the gentler stages the ASO puts in the TdF after a vicious mountain finish or an ITT. But don’t worry, the pain will come (looking ahead at S5-7…)

SiS GO Hydro
Ticker FIT
Shredded turbo shorts

Onwards!

[TimWatson75]

Get ready for a trip to the beach, and a really beautiful one at that. Leave the keys to the VW Camper at home though, @michael.cotty says it will be better to go along the coast by bike. Naturally his route will involve a few “lumps”, along the lines of 5 mins at 90% FTP @ 60rpm, and the same again at 80% ish. That’s enough to get the Suf Holy Water™ flowing nicely, and the legs glowing, reminding you this ain’t no holiday, it’s a Wahoo tour. There’s a cafe stop along the way though, cherry juice, but think less REGO and more 30% abv… Anyway, don’t forget your shades.

[DarrenWCKam]

A ride to the top of the hill and then to the beach. A fair ride after a rather epic suffering for Stage 3

#ShenaniganTour
#BringItOn!

[purestate]

Concentrating on the wonderful scenery.

A welcome transition stage but grinding at 60rpm not quite as refreshing and invigorating as suggested!

[rinaf]

oh no. i just looked at my notes from when I did this a couple months ago: “don’t let the ‘all below FTP’ fool you – 15 mins @105RPM followed by that grind near FTP is a serious workout!”

looking forward to tomorrow morning’s ride slightly less now …

[robsmyth]

Bit of a Goldilocks stage today, not too hard/easy but just right & a welcome cessation on the attacks as the peleton licks it’s wounds after those first 3 stages. Still felt those prolonged low cadence, then high cadence, then low cadence efforts though - hopefully shake the legs out a bit for stage 5

Video proof too that Sir @michael.cotty does in fact sit down - who’d have thunk

[Natasha.R]

@robsmyth said it all!

Beautiful ride, great as a sandwich between the previous stages and #5 & #6 still to come

[robsmyth]

@Natasha.R

& #6 still to come

Ssssh We’re all trying to ignore Stage 6 in the hope it might go away

[DameLisa]

Stage 4 is done.
Stage 5…I’ve been funded to don the goat suit again. And there is talk of sirarcha…

[SirLeslieinCanada]

This was a very nice ride, which I did directly after Stage 3 Rabbit Mountain today, so it was kind of a recovery, I guess. I am a grinder so all that time at 60 rpm suited me nicely but the superfast cadence, even if for downhill bits, was not so easy. Like many of the On Location videos, the photography is great. Today’s ride also got me the badge for the On Location: Portugal videos, so all good!

[Owen]

Done. Bit of a sneaky one that.

[TimWatson75]

You mean this?!

Would you like to lay out the targets for the ladies & gentlemen? If we hit them I’ll “happily” raise a glass (or two!) of this to you & the DPF.

[jesawdy]

@rinaf

oh no. i just looked at my notes from when I did this a couple months ago: “don’t let the ‘all below FTP’ fool you – 15 mins @105RPM followed by that grind near FTP is a serious workout!”

I chose to ignore cadence targets for this one today. Some recent low cadence/climbing workouts gave me the slightest niggle in my left knee and I’m keeping an eye on that… kept this in the 90-105 rpm range.

Portugal: Nazaré to Foz do Arelho (never done this one before) - enjoyed the Mr. Cotty videos that I have done so far but I’ll admit I didn’t give him much attention today. I dual “rode” this workout in the RGT Wahooligan Chat Village event as well as listened to two cycling podcasts. Shout out to Canadian D. Doyle in RGT who seemed to swap turns riding with me, even though he probably wondered what the heck I was doing since I was following the workout.

Here’s the podcasts for this evening, finishing the second one now:

Wheel Talk - ladies peloton coverage

Pretty Serious Bike Racing - pretty self-explanatory

[DameLisa]

I’m not raising a glass of anything spicy without fundraising motivation trust mez the Carolyner Reaper sauce I have makes Sriracha/tabasco seem like lemonade in comparison. Would absolutely welcome you joining in on this challenge. But if you’re prepared to dri k shots of the stufd, you can likely raise more $

[Erik-KOS]

Still in the game! Finished stage 4. Tomorrow I will use my joker card curtesy of the 50 hour window and take a rest day before the end game…

[wmalexmann]

This was a welcome respite - almost all in zones 1 and 2. The low cadence is mostly ok for me, but long periods of high cadence are not my favorite. Legs felt a bit more worked over than I expected, even though I have ridden this before. Need to go listen to some mental training sessions before the pro-ride tomorrow.

[David.McQuillen.KoS]

Man, that was tough. I just felt drained today and the higher intensity sections were a real mental test. Got it done, but just wanted it to be over. Found myself picking out items in the distance and just focusing on those until we passed them.

Hopefully bounce back tomorrow - I love ProRides and tomorrow is one of the ‘easier’ ones in the library.

[nicktick]

When I saw the profile of this one, I thought - does this really belong in the Tour? So I bumped it up by 5% in the spirit of Sufferlandria.
And then when the cyclist passes us, and Sir @michael.cotty says we’re just here for a soothing ride, I thought, oh no we’re not! I took out the fat bike I’d nicked from Sir @Coach.Neal.H’s place yesterday while he was ogling his wines, and rode that the rest of the way (only added another 5% - it’s quicker than it looks).

Final insult was the comment about taking it easier, and winning some friends. Maybe in Couchlandria, but I’m here for an ass-kicking, not an ass-kissing.

I’m off to ride Defender in protest (with a tongue lightly inserted cheekwards)

[ediblehedge]

It felt more in the spirit of the ToS to make the easiest stage just that little bit harder, I nearly went with increasing the intensity, but had a bit of time, so rode it twice, back to back.

I’m never a big fan of 15 mins at 105 rpm and it was even more unpleasant the second time.