Race Rules

1. Transportugal Roads is an adventure event, open to the participation of anyone over 18 years of age, of any gender or nationality, contested over 7 stages, with a total length of around 1100 km, on a route in line that crosses Portugal from North to South.
2. Entity responsible for the Oragnization:
   Extreme Discovery Lda, headquartered at Rua dos Lameiros 50, 6320-692 Soito Portugal, Tax Number  515981052,  hereinafter referred to as the Organization.
3. The event consists of completing a route previously determined by the organization, without using any motorized means of transportation. The event lasts 8 days, with the first (day zero) dedicated to accreditation and the remaining 7 dedicated to completing the route.
4. The Event is not a competitive event. It is a cycle tourism event in which Participants ride at their own pace. However, the Organization may define at each Stage, for safety reasons or for any other reason related to the dynamics of the Event, stopping, starting and crossing times at previously defined points on the route and communicated to the Participants. The Organization may also, in some sectors of each Stage previously defined and communicated by the Organization, time the passage times of each Participant for the sake of event control. The term “test”, sometimes used in this regulation, does not fit into the reality of competition, and is only associated with the challenge and overcoming of each Participant to complete the seven demanding Stages within the time limits required by the Organization for safety reasons.
5. There are no distinct levels or classes between ages or genders.

1. Registrations for TRANSPORTUGAL ROADS are limited to the number of vacancies available for each edition, which is established by the Organization.
2. Registrations open on December 20^th, and the registration form is available at the event’s site (www.trans-portugal.com/roads) and end 15 days before the beginning of the event or when vacancies are complete.
3. The person interested in participating requests his/her registration by filling the form mentioned in the previous number.
4. Then, he/she shall be contacted by the Organisation via email in which is informed if the registration request has been validated.
5. If the request for registration has been validated, the Person Interested must pay the amount established by the Organization, namely in accordance to the rules foreseen in numbers 12, 13 and 14 infra.
6. Once the payment is made, the Organization approves the registration application and communicates its approval to the Applicant.
7. A registration is considered complete and produces effects after the registration application has been validated and approved by the Organization.
8. Before any payments are made by the applicant, the Organization is entitled to refuse a registration application without having to state the reasons for its decision.
9. The registration price is the one indicated in the event’s site and depends on the services pack(s) that the Applicant wishes to subscribe.
10. Those who apply for registration after all available vacancies for that year, will be informed by the Organization that the event is fully booked and what are the conditions in case the Applicant wants to be included in the waiting list.
11. If there is a vacancy (no matter the reason), the first athlete in the waiting list is contacted via email to fill in the vacancy and has 2 working days to confirm and accept to fill in the vacant slot. If, within the time mentioned, the Applicant refuses the vacancy or if the period ends without confirmation, the athlete who is next in the list is invited to accept the vacancy and so forth.
12. Without prejudice to numbers 13 and 14 of this article, the registration application is only approved after the payment of at least 50% of the total value of the packs acquisition is made. The mentioned payment must be received by the Organization up to the fifth working day of the registration application date.
13. All registrations requested before May 30^th have to be fully paid until June 15^th.
14. Registrations requested between June 16^th and September must be fully paid until two working days after the registration validation.
15. Non-fulfilling the payment rules established in the previous numbers implies the refusal of the registration application in question or if it has already been approved, the revocation of that approval based on the non-fulfilment of the Regulation attributable to the Athlete.
16. If the approval is revoked, the Applicant shall be reimbursed of the amount paid minus 15% of the total value of the registration.
17. Participants are not entitled to any reimbursement of the amount paid if the event does not take place for reasons beyond organizer’s control, namely for reasons of force majeure, natural disaster, legal imposition, or order issued by a public authority or by a private body with powers of control in cycling.
18. At any moment, the Organization can revoke the approval of a registration application based on the Athlete’s breach of this event Rules or the basic sports ethical principles.

1. Withdrawals undertaken before the beginning of the event must be communicated to the Organization by email.
2. Withdrawals must be communicated to the Organization up to 45 days before the beginning of the event. In this case, the Athlete can choose one of the following possibilities:
   1. Partial reimbursement of the amount already paid, considering that:
      • If the opened vacancy was allocated to another athlete, the Athlete is entitled to the amount already paid minus 15% of the total value of the packs subscribed.
      • If the opened vacancy was not allocated to anyone, the Athlete is entitled to the amount paid minus an amount equal to 50% of the total value of the packs subscribed.
      • The moment when it is established if the vacancy was, or was not, filled is the one in which the Athlete requires the reimbursement.
   2. Request registration in the following year’s edition of the event and require partial allocation of the amount already paid as prepayment of that registration, considering that:
      • The Athlete is the holder of the entry booked for the following year.
      • The Organization allocates 85% of the amount already paid to the registration payment of the following year. The remaining 15% is retained for the payment of administrative and logistic expenses already undertaken for the participation of the Athlete in the current year.\
      • The Athlete must confirm the registration up to ten days after the registrations open date for the following year’s event. If he/she does not do this, loses the right to any reimbursement or to the right to request the allocation of that amount to the prepayment of registrations in editions of subsequent years.
3. When communicating the withdrawal, the Athlete must state his/her option with regard to one of the two possibilities given and mentioned in the previous number. If this statement is not received by the Organization, the second possibility is the one considered as chosen (indicated in b)).
4. If the withdrawal is requested after the time limit mentioned in no. 2 of this Article, the person who withdraws is not entitled to a reimbursement nor can he/she request his/her registration to be transferred to the following year’s edition of the event, no matter if the vacancy opened is, or is not, filled.

1. The Organization will provide the event track to all Athletes.
2. The TRANSPORTUGAL ROADS track is not marked with any signs. It uses public roads, and crosses villages and towns. For these reasons, all Athletes must follow and respect the portuguese traffic rules.
3. Any of the used roads by TRANSPORTUGAL ROADS is closed for the event. Therefore, the Athletes must consider the possibility of encountering vehicles, people and/or animals circulating in both directions.
4. It is mandatory to follow the event’s track provided by the Organization. Sanctions are foreseen for those who do not comply with this rule.
5. The applicable penalty consists of adding 10 minutes to the time done by the Athlete in the stage, for each missing kilometer or part of kilometer.
6. Before the start of the event, the Organization will send the official track to Athlete’s email that must be installed in their own GPS devices.
7. The GPS is the only navigation means that the Athletes have to follow the event track.
8. Athletes are solely responsible for the operation of their GPS devices, and for making sure that their GPS device is in their possession during the event and recording their progression on the ground. Except when otherwise indicated by the Organization.
9. The GPS event track may present continuity failures. In this case all routes taken to connect the interrupted line will be considered valid.
10. The event track crosses many roads, some of which perpendicularly, which may be dangerous for the Athletes due to lack of visibility and the speed of vehicles. Thus, the Athletes must ensure that their GPS device registers an effective stop, so the Organization recommends all Athletes to stop the bike for a period of 10 seconds at all crossroads identified by the Organization and included in the data installed into the Athlete’s GPS and which shall be marked with a symbol and/or the word ‘STOP’.
11. A 15 minutes penalty is applied for each breach of the STOP obligation, which will be verified by analysing the Athletes GPS recorded track at the end of each stage.
12. An Athlete that does not respect the safety rule mentioned in the previous numbers more than 3 times during the event will be excluded from it.
13. An Athlete can leave the event track whenever he/she wishes to do so without penalty provided that he/she resumes it at the same point where lefted it or at one before it.

1. The Athlete’s luggage must be composed of a maximum of two suitcases: one for the bike and the other for the remaining personal items.
2. At day zero, the Athlete is given a tag to identify his/her bag, in which he/she must place all his/her personal items that will be needed for the event. Only one bag alowed for the event.
3. The Organization transports the mentioned bag from one stage to the next.
4. During the event, the Athlete only has access to the bag identified with the official tag.
5. Personal items that have not been placed inside the mentioned bag shall remain in the Athlete’s original suitcase which is stored inside a sealed truck. This suitcase is handed out to the Athlete immediately after the last stage.
6. The Athlete only has access to his/her other personal items kept inside the truck in case of withdrawal.

1. TRANSPORTUGAL ROADS is a self-sufficiency event, thus the Athlete can not have external assistance during the stages under penalty of being excluded from the event.
2. For purposes of the previous number, external assistance is any pre-programmed action of supplying assistance in any physical way to a Athlete, whether he/she requests it or not.
3. The exception to the rule mentioned in the previous numbers is the assistance given by the Organization when Athletes request it and in this case there is an applied penalty of 15 minutes. Medical emergency situations are not penalized.
4. The assistance given to the athletes by decision of the Organization, whether or not pre-programmed is lawful.
5. Also lawful is the assistance, required or not, by the Athletes during the event with regard to the navigation and use of their GPS device. A 15 minutes penalty will be applied each time an Athlete requests and is supplied with batteries for his/her GPS device.
6. Assistance among Athletes is allowed while they are racing.
7. Getting supplies in an autonomous and unplanned manner from private or public establishments is not a breach to the number one of this article.

1. Athletes are required to carry a mobile phone from the beginning to the end of each stage.
2. The lack or non-operationality of the mobile phone results in a penalty of 1 hour, for each time the fault is detected.

1. The use of a helmet compatible with the chosen means of locomotion is mandatory whenever the athlete is not moving on foot, under penalty of being excluded from the event.
2. The use of graphics or any other ways of visual expression of obscene character on the Athlete’s equipment is punished in the same terms as those mentioned in the previous number.

1. Athletes must use a plate with their event number, which must be placed in the front of the chosen means of locomotion in a visible way under penalty of a 30 minutes sanction for every time the infringement takes place.
2. All changes to the plates’ dimensions have to be previously authorized by the Organization under penalty of exclusion from the event.

1. The Time Allowance (Handicap) is a percentage of time, allocated by the Organisation to the Stage Time of the athletes in question, in accordance to the event Pack.
2. The natural inequalities of physical capability among Athletes (arising from age and gender) are corrected by the Organisation who will apply the Time Allowance to the real time of the stage of the athlete. This way the Classification Time will be updated according to the formula (Real Time – (Best Real Time X Time Allowance)). Time allowance Percentages:
   1. Female participants – 14%
   2. Participants over 46 years of age:
      • =>46 =<55 – 2%
      • =>56 =<60 – 5%
      • =>61 =<65 – 9%
      • =>66  – 14%
3. If applicable, percentages indicated in the previous number are cumulative.
4. Any time allowance will only be applied whenever there is a minimum of 5 athletes registered  with the same percentage.
5. In the case of an athlete, or up to four athletes, given their characteristics, have aTime Allowance that does not fulfils the requirement of number 4 supra, they will automatically move on to the next percentage group, and so on, until the minimum number of 5 athletes per group is reached.

1. The Official Start Time is the time when Athletes who do not benefit from a handicap start the stage.
2. The Official Start Time is documented in the event Pack and corresponds to the GPS time for the Western European time zone (London, Lisbon).
3. The Start Control Point (CHP) closes 15 minutes after the Official Start Time.
4. All Athletes beneficiating or not from a handicap can leave up to 15 minutes after the Official Start Time.
5. An Athlete who leaves after the closing of the CHP will not have the stage validated. For all purposes, the Organization considers that in this case the Athlete is not participating in this stage, declining all responsibilities in occurences in which he/she might be involved.

1. The location of the Finish Control Point (CHC) is given to the Athletes, namely through the indication in the event map provided by the Organization and visible in the GPS device display.
2. The Athlete ends the stage when he/she crosses the corresponding Finish Line and this is the relevant moment for purposes of determining the stage time.
3. The Finish Line is physically identified with a mark on the ground, info board or banner with the words ‘META’.
4. The Finish Control Point closes at the time indicated in the event Pack and is calculated by multiplying by 1.75 the best stage record of previous editions of the event or the time allocated by the Organization for that same stage, without prejudice of number 6 below.
5. If the first Athlete crossing the Finish Line exceeds the record time or the allocated time for the stage, then the CHC closing time is proportionally extended, in accordance with the same 1.75 factor, without prejudice of number 6 below.
6. For safety reasons, if the indicated finish time or the calculated finish time in accordance with numbers 4 and 5 above is after sunset, then the closing of CHC will be cut short to the sunset time.
7. If the Athlete finishes the stage after the CHC closing time, as determined according with the previous numbers, the corresponding stage is not validated.
8. At each stage arrival, all Athletes are required to hand out their GPS to the Organization, so that the latter can remove the track recorded and check if the event track has been respected for that corresponding stage.
9. The Athlete who does not hand out his/her GPS is allocated the maximum time foreseen in the event Pack for that stage plus all eventual penalties.
10. If the GPS is broken or does not hold the event track undertaken by the athlete, the consequence foreseen in the previous number is applied to the Athlete.
11. Next to the Finish Line of each stage, the Organization sets up a support structure to supply free drinks, fruit and snacks to the athletes.

1. The Organization may consider to install Check Points (CP) throughout the track that might, or not, be identified.
2. A penalty of 60 minutes will be given for each skipped CP.
3. CP are monitored by members of the Organization. In this case, the person in charge of the CP register the time of passage of the Athletes by taking note of the athletes event numbers, as well as the hour, minute and second of their passages.
4. The location of the identified CP is previously informed to the participants, namely through the indication of geographical coordinates or indication in the track provided by the Organization and visible in the GPS device display.
5. Some CP have a closing time, which is communicated to all Athletes the day before each stage. Closing time is updated in accordance to number 5 of the previous article.
6. All Athletes that arrive at a CP after its updated closing time, must stop that stage and are transported to the Arrival by the Organization or receive instructions on how to get there safely. Consequently, the stage in question is not validated.
7. Except where stated otherwise by the Organization or if signalled by a ‘STOP’ mark, Athletes are not obliged to stop or slow down when they go through the CP.

1. To increase the event competitiveness, timed intermediate sections can be established, specially timed and object of an Intermediate Classification.
2. All the Intermediate Timed Sections are identified in the event Pack. Such sections are chosen taking into account the type of pavement, gradient and relief in order to match the different abilities of the competing athletes.
3. These sections grant the first 10 athletes who finish the timed section, bonuses in the form of time to be deducted to the Final Time achieved on the event in accordance to number 5 and to the following table:
   • 1st place – 5’
   • 2nd place – 3’
   • 3rd place – 2’
   • 4th place – 90”
   • 5th place – 1’
   • 6th place – 50”
   • 7th place – 40”
   • 8th place – 30”
   • 9th place – 20”
   • 10th place – 10”
4. Intermediate Classifications are calculated considering the existence of handicaps.
5. The Stage Classification does not consider these bonuses but they will be reflected in the General Classification.

1. For the Athletes’ safety, the Organization shall lend each Athlete a geographical positioning monitoring device (tracker).
2. The devices mentioned in the previous number are small and are carried by the Athletes in a place to be indicated by the Organization in order to safeguard their correct operation.
3. Any damage the tracker has when it is returned to the Organization or its disappearance is the sole responsibility of the Athlete that carried it.
4. Failure to return the trackerintact at the end of the stage obligates the Athlete who carried it, to pay for its repair or replacement, up to 180,00 eur (one hundred and eighty euros).
5. The Athlete who refuses to carry the tracker or who carries it in a location different from the one indicated by the Organization, shall have the stage annulled.

1. The Athlete who wishes to withdraw from a stage must immediately inform the Organization.
2. If there is no information on the whereabouts of an Athlete’s, the Organization may trigger a search and rescue operation. Existing costs shall be charged to the Athlete who recklessly or through serious negligence did not communicate his/her withdrawal.
3. If an Athlete withdraws or is unable to validate three stages, the Organization prevents him/her from undertaking the following stages. In this case, if the athlete wishes to accompany the Organization until the end of the event, extra transport costs must be paid, regarding the remaining stages, if existing, being this decision made on a case-by-case basis by the Organization.

1. The Athlete can withdraw from the event at any given moment.
2. The Athlete shall not be reimbursed of the price paid for any good or service not used due the withdrawing from the event.
3. Without prejudice to the content of the previous number, if the athlete wishes to accompany the Organization until the end of the event, extra transport costs must be paid, regarding the remaining stages, if existing, being this decision made on a case-by-case basis by the Organization.

1. When registering for the event, Athletes can choose to acquire a bike service which values are established in the Registration page.
2. Technical assistance requested to the Organization by Athletes without a Contracted service, are subject to the availability of technical services and will be charged according to an hourly labour rate set out by the Organization.

1. When registering for the event, Athletes can choose to acquire a Massage service which values are established in the Registration page.
2. Pending on the availability of masseurs, athletes can contract massages individually during the event.

1. The registration price includes the Athlete’s accommodation during the event according to the Pack chosen when registering.
2. Allocation of roommates is undertaken by the Organization, considering as much as possible the requests made by the Athletes at the moment of registration.
3. “SINGLE PACK” slots are in limited numbers.

1. The event Director is entitled to exclude from the event Athletes in the following situations:
   1. Voluntary or non-voluntary state of physical or mental incapacity;
   2. Unsportsmanlike conduct;
   3. Breach of the event rules;
   4. Illegal conduct;
   5. Disrespect for the environment;
   6. Gross disrespect for the Organization and/or other Athletes.

1. In the event results or classifications all accountable times are measured in hours, minutes and seconds.
2. The Organization daily produces two classifications: one ranking the Competitors’ performance on the day’s stage (Stage Classification) and another showing their accumulated results in all stages up to that moment of the event (General Classification).
3. In both cases, a classification is ranked from the best to the worst accountable time – adding the existing due penalties, and deducting due bonuses. It will also show average speeds and time differences between competitors.
4. The General Classification is primarily sorted by Competitors who have all stages validated and ranked by the least total accountable time in the sum of those stages, also taking in account the eventual results obtained in the intermediate Classifications.
5. For Competitors who haven’t all stages validated, their position in the General Classification is ranked firstly by the number of stages validated, then by the number of total kilometres done and finally by the time accounted for in the event.
6. At the end of the 7 stages, the Final Times of each Competitor are computed and the General Classification is done in accordance to the same rules stated in the previous numbers.
7. All claims must be presented in a written form up to 60 minutes after the results are published.

1. The first 5 Athletes of the Final Classification, in accordance to the previous article, are awarded;
2. All participants are given a event T-Shirt;
3. Athletes who have not been excluded from the event are entitled with a diploma with classification information.
4. Athletes with all event stages validated also receive a “TRANSPORTUGAL ROADS FINISHER” cycling jersey.

Any issue not foreseen in this instrument as well as interpretation doubts that may arise, are integrated and solved by the Organization, respecting equality and impartiality principles.