On 14 June, the Deputation of Ourense hosted the presentation of “Xurés Bike Tour”, a cycling event framed in the European project Fronteira Esquecida Río Limia-Lima that will be held on the 18th, 19th and 20th in the Sierra de O Xurés. More than 200 athletes and amateurs from twelve Spanish provinces and the north of Portugal will take part in the event, which will cover more than 120 kilometres divided into three stages.
The event will take place in the area of the Gerês-Xurés Cross-border Biosphere Reserve, and will be disputed in both individual and couple modalities and, as a novelty, with electric bicycle to facilitate greater participation. The “Xurés Bike Tour” is part of the activities planned within the cross-border project Fronteira Esquecida Río Limia-Lima, 75% co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), within the Interreg V A Spain-Portugal Programme (POCTEP) 2014-2020.
The race will start on the afternoon of Friday 18th with a prologue stage of 12 kilometres that will start and finish in Muíños. On Saturday, the 19th, the longest stage will be held, 69 kilometres, starting and finishing in the tourist resort of O Corgo, in Muíños, passing through Pitões das Júnias in the Portuguese municipality of Montealegre. The race will conclude on Sunday, the 20th, with a 42-kilometre stage that will start and finish in the thermal area of Río Caldo, in Lobios.
The sport event has as godfather the professional cyclist Óscar Pereiro, who will receive a tribute as this race coincides with the 15th anniversary of his victory in the Tour de France, and he accepted the bib number 1. “It is a plus of quality to have Pereiro for a race that allows us to continue talking about recovery and return to the sport show in contact with nature” said the provincial president, Manuel Baltar.
Besides thanking the support of the Provincial Council and trusting that this event will have continuity in time, the mayor of Muíños, Plácido Álvarez, highlighted that the accommodation in the municipalities of Muíños and Lobios and the neighbouring municipalities have been full for days. The mayoress of Lobios, María del Carmen Yáñez, pointed out that with this event “we continue to complete our project to become a tourist-sports destination focused on cycling, and in which we are seeing a continuous increase of participants and a high degree of satisfaction”. The president of the Municipal Chamber of Montealegre, Orlando Alves, congratulated the organisation of a race “that contributes to promote this cross-border area through sport”.
You can access here the complete news of the Diputación, and watch the video of the presentation in this link.
