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rotavicentina.com/en/cycling/44-funcheira/
Colos Trailhead
A difficult and very varied route that runs south of Colos through remote areas of almost untouched nature.
In addition to numerous small climbs and descents, its main difficulties are a climb from 3 km to 14 km, and another from 37 km to 45 km, both intersected by several small descents.
At first it goes west towards the Tamera community, one of the largest ecovillages in Portugal, continuing south and then east. It mainly follows along rural and forest roads, almost always in the middle of a stunning vegetation with many cork oak groves and pastures.
It has no single tracks and no noteworthy waterline crossings.
Fully marked trail. Learn more about our signage here.
Author’s recommendation
Most notable points:
- Tamera Community (6 km)
- Relíquias (12 km)
- Funcheira train station (37 km), an important railway terminus of the southern line and the Alentejo line.
This route is accessible from trains that stop at Funcheira and Amoreiras-Gare stations.
In Amoreiras-Gare it would be unforgivable to pass without tasting the alcôncoras, a popular regional sweet made in the village.
Support Points:
12 km– Relíquias
22 km – Amoreiras-Gare
34 km – Garvão
37 km – Funcheira Station
44 km – Santa Luzia
rotavicentina.com/en/touring-bike/
It is now possible to travel the Southwest of Portugal on two wheels, through the new GPS layout that joins Lisbon and Faro airports, putting in the way connections to several companies of the Rota Vicentina partner network with bike friendly services.
The Touring Bike Route complements the offer of the Vicentina Route in Bicycle Routes, which also includes a network of more than 1000 km for MTB, and is a response to numerous requests for a route between the Pedestrian Trails (Historic Path, Fishermen's Trail and Circular Routes) and two of the main airports in the country.
The total mileage goes a little beyond 500 km and on the way there are mainly bike paths (namely in Lisbon and Faro and in their respective vicinity) and roads or paths with little traffic.
In its definition there was also the concern to establish a balance between the coast and the interior, providing numerous incursions through little-visited areas, both along the coast and far from it!
Route not signaled on the ground. Download the GPS track or use the Outdooractive app.
Author's advice
Although it can be divided in the most convenient way for each cyclist, the Touring Bike route is formally divided into 10 stages of about 50 km, and can be made from north to south or south to north:
FARO » LISBON
Faro Airport - Olhos d'Agua
Olhos d'Agua - Silves
Silves - Burgau
Burgau - Carrapateira
Carrapateira - Zambujeira do Mar
Zambujeira do Mar - Cercal
Cercal - Costa da Gale
Costa da Gale - Setúbal
Setúbal - Meco Village
Meco Village - Lisbon Airport
rotavicentina.com/en/gravel-bikepacking/
Thinking of those who want to travel by bike with their luggage, in a mix of adventure and freedom, the Rota Vicentina offers a journey through Southwest Portugal, on a route carefully chosen to reveal some of the most unknown trails in this region. Between the mountains and the sea, this pedal-powered encounter with the rural culture of the interior and the beautiful, well-preserved Alentejo and Vicentina Coast, follows the goal of reaching the extreme south-western tip of the European continent: Cape Saint Vincent. Divided into 4 stages, with around 55 kilometers each, this route stands out for its possible connections through the region’s railway stations (Grândola, Funcheira, Santa Clara-Sabóia and Lagos), bike friendly accommodation and also the routes and bike stations of the Cyclin’ Portugal Centre in Odemira
rotavicentina.com/en/long-distance-mtb-trail/
The main objective of this Long Distance MTB Trail is to connect all the Odemira MTB trailheads, departing from a train station and ending at or near another station.
It is a relatively long course but of a low technical level and so is also accessible to Gravel bikes.
Although it often runs alongside sections of other MTB routes, it is designed to avoid the most technical sections, therefore it has a higher percentage of asphalt, but always with little traffic.
You can start at Amoreiras-Gare Station (where there is 1 train a day), or at Funcheira (with 3 daily trains) or go to Santa Clara, passing 8 km before at Savoie Station (where 3 trains stop daily).
Despite passing through small villages, the route takes place mainly in remote areas of the municipality of Odemira, where you can breathe the peace of the tranquility of Alentejo!
You can reduce the route to 123 km by starting at Funcheira Station and finishing at Santa Clara/Sabóia.
Another possibility is to divide the route into stages.
5 stages / days
• 27 km - From Amoreiras-Gare to Colos
• 25 km - From Colos to São Luís
• 28 km - From São Luís to Odemira
• 22 km - From Odemira to São Teotónio
• 41 km - From São Teotónio to Santa Clara-a-Velha
Using gravel routing in the Algarve recently, I discovered many delightful roads by trusting the c.t routing algorithm. The only hiccup was due to missing OSM tags on a truly impassable section. But of course there was a lot of variability in the quality of the passable dirt/gravel roads.
I added smoothness tags to a lot of rideable, but variable quality, dirt/gravel roads while touring. Later, I noticed that c.t does not use the smoothness tag (under the hood):
We use the surface= tag to determine how suitable a path is for cycling. We look for the values asphalt, paved, concrete, tarmac, paving_stones, compacted, gravel, ground, earth, cobblestone, grass, unpaved, dirt, and sand in roughly that order (the ones at the start are better). You can use the tracktype tag as an alternative.
Should I have used MTB:scale tags? I assume anything gravel-rideable is a 0 or 1 (maybe 2 in a pinch).
I think surface / tracktype tags do not give much information about actual gravel-rideability -- any of the surfaces listed above could be suitable for a gravel bike.
Is the smoothness tag useful?
Thanks.
Made in the Cotswolds. Published by Éditions Système D Ltd.
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