Mondayish Sunday!

Well folks, this was a hell of a sunday for me...
The mates here in Lamas city had arranged a trip to Lousã, the meca of Downhill here in Portugal... Even you might have heard of it!
Top pros like Gee Atherton, Cedric Gracia, and many more have already been there, practising with our own portuguese pros like Ivo Padilha and Cláudio Loureiro (I think he was there too!).
Anyway, Lousã is the real deal. Dream-like singletracks, rocky, rooty, fast, technical sections make these hills a place to go at least once in your life.
I garantee, it's worth the trip.

Myself, my brother, our father and some of our riding mates had the privilege of taking a day off with one objective: riding our asses off on the best trails our small country has to offer.

I woke up at 6:50 in the morning, it was going to be a 2 hour long drive...
After breakfast, everything was set and off we went!
Got there in two hours, maybe less, got our game on, bikes ready, and the trucks were ready to carry all the guys and respective bikes to the top of the hill...
On my first run down the track, everything went alright, wasn't really ripping it yet, i had to warm up first, get to know the tracks a little better, but got through that quickly...

My second descent didn't go so well... I was warmed up, had my game on, I was ready to tackle the track like a mad man.
But, unfortunatelly, crap happens to everyone and if there's one thing I hate, it's flats... Well, f*$% me, it happened! And it had to happen up top of a 4 minute long descent (if you're ripping it, that is!) !
So here I was, carrying my trusty machine- with a not so trusty rear tyre- on my hand, down a steep and long pure Downhill track... Every step I took on that sweet, sweet singletrack was a bit of dirt my wheels weren't shredding...
When I finally got to the parking area, the guys had already left to the top and only my father and a mate that had also had a flat were down there... New tube put in, ready to rip.
Eventually, the guys got down there and so did our loading rigs.
One more drive up, one more raging descent! Everything went well, I was actually surprised by myself, I was really inspired, really fast!
Well, too fast...

"Too fast?? Is that possible?!" you folks might ask... Yup... The final passage to the final dirt road... I could already see the cars! That passage is a small step, to ride down of, not to jump through! Well, I was riding like a crazy dude, ripping it! So much that instead of riding down, I dropped the moffo!
"Surprise! That just got you a broken derailleur in between you spokes!"
I said to myself "Well, buddy... WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING???" ...
This was only because this sort of thing doesn't happen to me often (luckilly)...
My old man decided to stay down there and lend me his bike, so I could ride down while he tried to fix my bike... So I did (thanks dad!).
That time, no problems, even got to test drive his bike for the first time (2008 Specialized Bighit 1), I liked it!
When I got to the car, my bike was ready, I just couldn't switch gears but... Meh...
So, final ride.
All good... Except... Same place, same speed, same s*it... Derailleur in between the spokes, once again. Luckilly, this was the last ride down.
I think it's obvious that this was a sign to pack up, have lunch with the other dirtbags and go home.
And so we did. Lots of food and lots of laughs later, we head back home.
It was awesome, getting to rip those trails once again but this sort of bad luck doesn't usually happen to me, why did it have to happen there??

Conclusion: 6 runs- 1 flat and a derailleur broken twice...

Better luck next time, I hope...

Cheers!