- Jun 30, 2014
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Lupetto said:Estrada da Corda (Ilha de Santo Antão)
The island of Santo Antão is one of ten islands of Cabo Verde. And since this beautiful island country will win the next African Cup of Nations, it's time to take a look on this country.
The Estrada da Corda is a road between the municipalities of Porto Novo and Ribeira Grande.This beast of a climb is completely cobbled. 35 kilometers of cobblestones. But it is not only cobbles and insanely staggering nature, it is also a very demanding climb from both sides.
If you tackle the climb of the "road of ropes" from the north side of the island, you will start in Ribeira Grande. From sea level the road rises up to 1413 meters on a distance of 17 kilometers. So we have an average gradient of 8,3%, which maxes out at 17%. It's like a little Koppenberg in the middle of a hard climb.
From the south side it is almost the same length and the same gradient. But the middle part with short hairpin after short hairpins features about 5-6 kilometers at 10-12%.
I believe, that there were actually road races held on these streets and it seems like they had to climb and to descent on these roads.
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Wow, 17km with an average gradient of 8,3% on cobbles, that's brutal