Based on the archipelago’s largest island of São Miguel in the mid-Atlantic, the event will celebrate its half-century in 2015. The timed tests criss-cross breath-taking scenery and lush countryside, and are characterised by their sandy surface and narrow and undulating nature. And because the stages are often no wider than the width of a car, there is simply no margin for error, particularly on the Sete Cedades test, which runs along the rim of a volcanic crater lake. Changeable weather is also a factor with conditions switching from sunshine to showers and patches of fog thrown in for good measure.