The Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF) announced today that it is analyzing the request for an opinion on the route of the Volta a Portugal cycling race, which includes a stage crossing the Gerês.
The 87th edition of the Volta a Portugal cycling race runs from August 5 to 16, uniting Lisbon and Porto over 1,388 kilometres, distributed across a prologue, nine road stages and a time trial.
“The ICNF has received a request for an opinion on the route of the Volta a Portugal in Bicycle, which is under analysis,” the Institute said in a response sent today to the Lusa agency.
Stage 7, scheduled for August 13 and crossing the Peneda-Gerês National Park (PNPG), has generated concern and criticism from environmental associations, which contest the cyclists’ passage, especially through Mata da Albergaria, in the municipality of Terras de Bouro, Braga district.
The stage starts in Vieira do Minho, will pass through Caniçada, Rio Caldo and Vila do Gerês, will climb to Portela de Leonte via National Road 308-1 and will then traverse Mata da Albergaria, by the forest road up to Portela do Homem.
Zero – Association for a Sustainable Terrestrial System has already demanded, in a statement sent on Saturday to the Lusa agency, more clarifications from the Cycling Federation and from the ICNF about this stage of the Volta that passes through a “critical zone” of the PNPG.
The environmental association recalls that the PNPG “is the only area classified as a National Park in Portugal, forms part of the Peneda/Gerês Special Conservation Zone and includes zones of partial and total protection — such as Mata de Albergaria, classified as Biogenetic Reserve by the Council of Europe — subject to specific rules of movement, access and use of rustic land.”
Zero reveals that it has requested clarifications from the Portuguese Cycling Federation and from the ICNF about the situation, appealing to these entities and also to the race organization “to make public the exact route and the authorization documentation regarding the passage through the National Park, allowing informed scrutiny by civil society.”
Also today, Fapas – Portuguese Association for Biodiversity Conservation – expressed “deep concern” about the Volta a Portugal cycling race passing through the PNPG, classified by UNESCO as a World Biosphere Reserve.
“Nothing moves us against the Volta a Portugal, but a lot mobilizes us in defense of our only National Park: biodiversity, the landscape, the local culture, rural tourism, among many other values that the National Park must safeguard,” said Fapas, in a statement.
Stage 7 (13 August, Vieira do Minho – Gerês Thermal Baths) crosses the PNPG, “including the unprecedented climb to Germil [municipality of Ponte da Barca] and an incursion into Spanish territory near the border”.
“Not only will the cyclists cross Mata de Albergaria, one of the PNPG’s most sensitive areas, but also a numerous and noisy accompanying entourage consisting of cars, motorcycles, loudspeakers, sirens and spectators,” says Fapas.
This association notes that, “after numerous atrocities committed and attempted in the PNPG, this activity was missing,” recalling that it is “subject to an opinion from the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF), the body that manages the PNPG.”
“There are no shortages of mountainous places in Portugal where this competition could take place, but they chose a protected area, which shows, on the one hand, deep environmental illiteracy and, on the other, the enormous retreat of measures and actions of nature conservation,” accuses Fapas.
In this sense, it says it has requested further clarifications from the Minister of the Environment and the ICNF.
“Please publicly disclose the opinion that the ICNF gave (if any) on this crossing of Mata de Albergaria by the noisy Volta a Portugal in Bicycle 2026. For if the ICNF did not give an opinion, then the situation is more serious!” reads the statement.
