Carol DeLancey is a Bike Gallery customer who grew up in Oregon, but moved two years ago to Loulé, a small city in the Algarve region of Portugal. She is a Cycle Oregon regular and is helping her partner train for this year’s event in Portugal’s incredible sunny weather. Recently, Carol watched the Pro Tour roll through her European hometown, snapped some great pictures, and is sharing her observations with us. We hope you enjoy this exclusive, personal look at a stage of the Volta ao Algarve.

Guess what we did today? Ran down to the corner of town where the Volta ao Algarve (Tour of Algarve) bike race entered Loulé and watched the riders go by! They had a steep, nasty ride today, and Loulé was only the halfway point. After grabbing food bags here, they headed north out of town on roads I know very well (some of them I bike, others we traverse while shuttling our kid to and from school) just for the purpose of climbing steep hills, then came back down to Loulé before heading to Faro and along the coast to Olhão. Whew.

So here we are, hanging out on the road leading into town from the west. This is also the road that the Mãe Soberana procession takes on its way to the church, which is just out of sight off the left edge of this photo. At any rate, this spot gave a great view of the approaching riders because we could see them top the hill in the distance and then climb up this short slope.

The police support of this ride is pretty impressive. There must have been twenty motorcycle cops with the cyclists, not to mention all the police standing at various corners and intersections of the ride for the purpose of stopping traffic once the riders got near. This cop was blasting his siren to alert spectators and ride organizers that the lead riders were approaching.

Here come the leaders!

And there they go, in classic formation — pointy at the front and spreading out behind.

Bet the Tour of California riders would give their eye teeth to be riding in shorts and short sleeves today! Wonder how many tens of thousands of euros are rolling by right now? And then comes the parade of support cars. Speaking of thousands of euros rolling by! This was a who’s who of top bike names.

The Astana team car sporting a handful of Trek Madone bikes.

Including one very well known group of Trek Madones! (And I’m wondering which rider has the bike with the black handlebar tape, which is not the team color.) By the way, today is Alberto Contador’s 2009 debut. He’s letting his teammates Levi and Lance fight it out in the California wind and rain while he warms his legs up in the Algarve. Smart man; no wonder he’s the team leader. Oh, speaking of Levi — check out the photo below. This is the position you never want to be in while riding in the peloton… The whole series of images is here, and is very worth checking out. What amazes me is that the riders behind him, who are all going hell bent, somehow manage not to run him over. One rider comes very close, but as he falls, he manages to straddle Levi.

Levi crashed in an unfortunate place — the front of the pack. Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Cheers from the sunny Algarve (where if any riders fell, it wasn’t due to weather).

Here is some more about Carol, in her own words: “I have been cycling for as long as I can remember; I mean, I was the neighborhood champion of wheelies and catwalks when I was a kid, rode my mom’s Raleigh 3-speed when I was still too short to sit on the seat and reach the pedals, and bought my first 10-speed at 13 (a Raleigh Grand Prix!) with my earnings from picking strawberries.”  And about rding in her newly adopted home of Portugal, she taunts: “over here I can wear bike shorts in February and October. Of course, the other side of that is July/August, when it’s just a blast furnace. I honestly did not know my body was capable of producing so much sweat. I come home from my summer rides with salt lines on my gloves. True fact.”

Thanks Carol for sharing with us some impressions about cycling at the other side of the Atlantic. Have fun and keep us posted of your future adventures!