There are 1600.1 kilometers that make up the ten stages of the Tour of Portugal. In it run 177 cyclists divided into 19 teams who go out every day on two wheels to feed the dream that at least one, or his team, will reach the top of one of the classification tables by the end of August 20: individual , points, mountain, youth, teams, combined and best Portuguese.
But what makes these athletes, whether in the Tour of Portugal or in any other world cycling event, get out of bed every day to train or face hundreds of kilometers, many of them from top to bottom, sometimes up to the body he does not stand. further?
Pedro Almeida, psychologist, explained to TSF that, in these cases, the fuel of these athletes has a name: “Purpose”.
“It has to do with the meaning of things, with the meaning of things.” And that fuel is what makes, “despite the pain, despite the moment he is going through in the race and perhaps the falls he has already had and the expectations that perhaps are not being met according to what was waiting”, achieves a cyclist. “get back on the bike and go back for another stage”.
And if in this case the purpose is what makes the cyclists pedal, the route has another: “Objectives. It’s a bit like GPS, if we were a car, the targets are like GPS”.
In other words, if there were four-wheeled cyclists, what matters to reach the destination are not the objectives, but, the psychologist reinforced, the purpose: “It is not where we are going and where we have to go. We walk?”
But not everything can be solved with only one purpose and goals to achieve. Those who walk on the road are subject, to a greater or lesser extent, to suffer accidents and cyclists are no exception. Examples of this are “falls and the fear of more collective accidents”.
To compose this one-person caravan, only “strategic issues” remain. They include dimensions such as “patience, resilience, knowing how to wait and knowing how to attack only at the right moment”. And it is not always easy because that, “in the midst of many hours of effort, sometimes it may not be so well managed.”
The classification tables for this Thursday, day of the seventh stage that will connect Torre de Moncorvo with Montalegre, show who has had more fuel: the Russian Artem Nych is the leader of the general classification (yellow jersey), followed by Delio Fernández and Colin Stüssi.
In points, Daniel Babor (orange jersey) leads, with Leangel Linarez and João Matias also on the podium.
The leader of the mountain (blue polka dot jersey) is César Fonte, with Luis Ángel Mate and Delio Fernández in pursuit.
The best youngster will be Afonso Eulálio (white shirt), with César Guavita and Jaume Guardeño Roma in second and third place.
The best team is the Spanish Euskaltel-Euskadi, the leader of the combined classification is Colin Stüssi and the best Portuguese is Henrique Casimiro.
Source: TSF
