Volta a Portugal

afx237vi

Starts today, and is always a good race. A bit like the Tour of Poland, in that it has a long history, but has always been quite insular - it's the 71st edition but there have only been 15 non-Portuguese winners. However, like the Tour of Poland, it's becoming more international these days, with the last 3 editions won by Spaniards.

Also, looking at the race palmares, the 1988 edition was won by a Brit - one Cayn Theakston riding for the Portuguese Louletano-Vale do Lobo. Anyone know anything about him :?:

Anyway, this year's race is 10 stages, plus today's flat prologue in Lisbon. Looking at the route, it appears to be an incredibly difficult race, with barely any flat whatsoever! Stage 1 gets the race off to a reasonably easy start, but stages 2 and 3 both finish uphill, before stage 4 presents to first proper test:



Stage 5 is, again, lumpy with a kick at the end, and stage 6 is another hard climb to the finish:



Stages 7 and 8 provide some respite, although are not pan-flat by any stretch of the imagination, while stage 9 is without doubt the queen stage:



The race then finishes with a flat 30 km TT in Viseu.

Although 6 of the 14 teams are Portuguese, there are some bigger squads lining up too, including Lampre, ISD, LPR, Xacobeo-Galicia and Landbouwkrediet. Some interesting names to look out for:

- Damiano Cunego
- Dario Cioni
- Alessandro Petacchi
- Danilo Hondo
- Patrick Sinkewitz
- David Blanco (winner in 2006 and 2008)
- Santiago Perez

I think they'll be showing the race here:

http://ww1.rtp.pt/multimedia/index.php?emissoes=1

It's getting a LOT of build up at the moment.

iainf72

I watched a few stages from it a couple of years ago. Some real crackers, really up and down. Kind of reminded me of Pays Vasco in a way.

Kléber

An interesting event but like many races on the Iberian peninsula, the results usually go to the local lads. Some hard stages and its more scenic than the Vuelta.

disquieting_museeuws

Theakston made quite a name for himself in Portugal, although he was mostly unknown in the UK. He was from the midlands (Birmingham / Worcester). There's some bits on google about him.

afx237vi

The story so far: Candido Barbosa won the prologue, Manuel Cardoso won stage 1 ahead of Barbosa, then Barbosa won stage 2.

From what I can tell, Barbosa and Cardoso are the two real powerhouses of Portuguese cycling. Barbosa is a tough little sprinter who has won 7 UCI-ranked races this year, all of them in Portugal. Last year he won twice, both in Portugal. The year before that, 6 victories, all in Portugal... yeah, you get the idea, he rarely races outside Portugal.

Cardoso is similar, in that he rarely races outside Portugal, but he does have a little more variety in his palmares than Barbosa. Earlier this year he won stages in the Circuit de Lorraine in France and the Tropicale Amissa Bongo Ondimba in the Ivory Coast!

So until today it been a strictly local affair, but that changed, because stage 3 was won by everyone's favourite ex-doper, Patrick Sinkewitz! He nipped off the front of the bunch on a short uphill finish, to win by 9 seconds. Unfortunately he's already lost a stackload of time and is over 1 minute behind the yellow jersey.

Tomorrow is the first of three mountaintop finishes. The overall standings so far:

1 Candido Barbosa (Por) Palmeiras Resort / Tavira 14:38:09
2 Danilo Hondo (Ger) PSK Whirlpool - Author 0:00:12
3 Hector Guerra (Spa) Liberty Seguros 0:00:15
4 Filipe Cardoso (Por) Liberty Seguros 0:00:19
5 Hugo Sabido (Por) Paredes Rota Dos Moveis "

Selected others:

18 Santiago Perez (Spa) Madeinox Boavista 0:00:38
23 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre - N.G.C. 0:00:49
31 Patrik Sinkewitz (Ger) PSK Whirlpool - Author 0:01:05
43 Constantino Zaballa (Spa) Paredes Rota Dos Moveis 0:02:03
90 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) LPR Brakes - Farnese Vini 0:13:36

timoid.

I see Mr Sinkewitz is in the mix. Fourth after stage 7 @1:37

frenchfighter

10km to go on Stage 9.

http://www.justin.tv/radiotvdesporto1

This climb is about 35km :shock:

frenchfighter

1st and 2nd place in the GC are out ahead - this should mean a great battle towards the end (seperated by 7secs). Good to see the leader on the attack - I don't like defensive riders.

frenchfighter

Ribeiro has now attacked and is off solo with 7km to go.

frenchfighter

4km to go and Rubeiro is still dancing his way to the top. The attackers behind are giving it everything. Great stuff.

frenchfighter

49secs.

frenchfighter

And he takes the stage win and the overall. That was fantastic; great to watch. Impressive climb too - not very steep but all open, straightish and long.

frenchfighter

Kléber

What's "ohh... bugger" in Portuguese?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/ribeiro ... e-for-cera