For surfers this coast is well known, but bikers should not miss it either! Between 0 and 95 meters of altitute the coast offers perfect conditions to get lost natural natural bikepark where every corner invites to stay and stun. Crosscountry, up to the cliffs and down to the beaches, you can get lost for days if you want and if you are tough enough.
Comming from Sintra as already described in "Sintra Ericeira: Gran Lisboa a full!" only one uphill from 
Praha Lisandro we find Ericeira. A charming seaside town, traditional painted in white and blue. A dayride away from Lisbons metropole area, the narrow lanes, the great seaviews and a lovely treecovered square revive good old portugues times. Built by fishermen and conquered by surfers, the city never lost it´s cosy atmoshere. Nowadays the crowed citycenter offers a plenty of hostels, surf and souvenir surfshops and obvously an uncountable amount of coffees with spectacular sun terrasses. A great spot to finish a first bike day. Lay in the sand observing the surfers or try it on your own if your legs aren´t trembling yet. Ericeira also is the best place to do some shopping, as the rest of this coastline provides a lot of coffees and bars but only a very few shopping opportunities.The next morning our ride continues northwards. Through the urban zone of Ericeira we have to follow the mainroad along the coast, but this one is bordered by a expended sidewalk first and a abandond street later on. Some 4 km after Ericeira, we meanwhile past world surfresorts in the north of the city and the villages Ribamar and Sao Lorenco, finally we leave the road at the streetcross to Vilonga and ride to the outstanding cape. As often a bigger maintrail goes along with wonderfull singletrails closer to the cliffs. Be very carefull in this part! As beauty as this trails are, as dangerous they are! More than once only a one or two tires fits between the trail and the 60 m high cliffs. Sandstone forms a perfect surface, give emormously grip and
provides perfect bike fun. From one of the highest viewing point we ride down to the beach of Assenta, where we have to go back on the road for about 1 km, before turning left to the coast again. Beginning in the small village Cambelas we can follow the coastline most directly again. After another comparatively long downhill of 70 m, we reach the long beach of Praha Azul. After a recommended bath in the sea, we have two options to go on. The indicated way goes a few kilometer through the interior and found the coast again more northern.The other (and recomended) way forces us to push the bike to the other end of the beach. On the other side of the beach we can follow the coast lonesome for several kilometers along the beach and on top of the cliffs until Santa Cruz an finally Porto Novo.
The surroundings of a masshotel and a golfresorts are not very invitingly. But anyway the narrow bay with a virgin in the sea spray got something in particular, that make me stop everytime I pass by. Probably only for a breath of the salty air or a beer and a Bifana at the first "Tasco" at the pier.
This time my tour ends up here, 75 km away from Sintra and 35 km from Ericeira. All along the coast and including about 15 stops for a swim, this took me one and a half day. On the road I´m back in Sintra after 3,5 h. Alternatively nearby, in Torres Vedras, the regional train picks up tired bikers back to Lisbon.
GPS-Trail available on request
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