73ª Volta a Portugal 2.1 04/08 - 15/08

[Parrulo]

Broco did a bad ride

you should have seen how he crossed the line. he was completely cooked to the point were he had to get carried to the anti doping control because he couldn't stand by himself.

 

[Broth3r]

Got a gut feeling we'll see Mestre in red and white next year. Hell, Ace could even buy half of Tavira wholesale xD

Also: thanks to the fellow Portuguese members for the info on alternative though climbs on the first page, they sure would have come in handy in a discussion I had a few days ago. Although I am pretty sure that's not all we have... the organisation needs to get some scouting parties going on and and send them deep into the country, I'm sure we'll find some Tour of Flanders-level roads.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Caught up.
Hate that climb. Horrible, endless, super hot drag. Certainly cooked Broco good.
The way he was virtually thrown into anti-doping was cruel.
All over bar the shouting, since no fat lady is going to sing, here.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Caught up.
Hate that climb. Horrible, endless, super hot drag. Certainly cooked Broco good.
The way he was virtually thrown into anti-doping was cruel.
All over bar the shouting, since no fat lady is going to sing, here.

Why hate on Torre? It's a great climb. And, counterintuitively, the side with the lowest average gradient is the hardest.

Well, unless you take the road from Unhais da Serra to Piornos via Covão do Ferro, which the Volta has never done - that's 20km @ 6,4%, but includes two kilometres on unpaved roads in the middle. I don't know how that would relate to the Seia side but I'd lay money on it being tougher than the Manteigas side at least.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I just missed the start of the commentators' conversation but they mentioned Movistar links at the end of the sentence, so that sounds like it could be interesting speculation.

The péloton has been being controlled by Barbot, presumably for Ribeiro, and Onda, for reasons beyond my capability to understand.

The breakaway consists of:

Raul Alarcón & César Fonte (Barbot)
Márcio Barbosa (LA-Antarte)
João Cabreira (Onda)
Aitor Pérez (Lampre)
Diego Caccia, Davide Ricci Bitti, Gianluca Mirenda & Matteo Rabottini (Farnese Vini)
Diego Millán, Paul Kneppers, Rubén Martínez (Caja Rural)
Sérgio Carrasco (Andalucía-Caja Granada)
Julien Antomarchi & Daniel Diaz (La Pomme Marseillaise)
Mikhail Antonov & Sergej Rudaskov (Itera-Katyusha)
Jacob Rathe (Chipotle Development Team)

A few of these have been shelled during the stage, but the majority are still up at the front.

 

[Parrulo]

I just missed the start of the commentators' conversation but they mentioned Movistar links at the end of the sentence, so that sounds like it could be interesting speculation.

The péloton has been being controlled by Barbot, presumably for Ribeiro, and Onda, for reasons beyond my capability to understand.

thats interesting. what riders do you reckon could be useful to movistar? i would say cardoso and mestre. movistar already has rojas who is a better version of ribeiro.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Cardoso, Mestre (v useful in a TTT), Broco, Sérgio Sousa. Maybe they can sign João Cabreira so he and Piti can discuss who did the best job of escaping punishment.

Edit: Actually, no kidding here, maybe Fabricio Ferrari? He's useful in Spanish one-day races, he's the King of the Mountains here (his teammates have been taking the mountains points today to keep him safe in the jersey) and we know that Telefonica have been pushing for a South American presence on the team.

 

[Parrulo]

lol

well cardoso and mestre would certainly be great acquisitions.

funny how the number of portuguese riders at the world tour level has been going up over the last 3 or 4 years. 4 years ago it was only sergio paulinho. now we have him+ machado, costa, pires, cardoso and oliveira.

maybe we can take this as a sign that portuguese cycling is slowly growing and that the world tour teams mentality of not hiring portuguese riders is also changing.

also a possibility indeed tho the way he had to stop yesterday at the side of the road on the torre didn't really make an amazing argument for him

 

[canyonball]

About that... Anyone saw Cabreira comparing Prio-Tavira performance to Maia-Milaneza .One would think he would like to put those years behind. But there he was talking like a proud man.

I would be surprised if they took Broco instead of Cardoso or Mestre. They were saying Broco could be heading to Caja Rural next year.

@ Parulo: It's definitely good the amount of portuguese riders riders going World Tour, but one has to think of the future. Portuguese peloton is short of money and numbers. Loads of espoirs flood the market every year only to realize they can't really make it. If Ribeiro, Cardoso, Mestre, Broco, Sousa go out who's there to fill there shoes?*. I just feel like there is going to be a hiatus in the next couple of years in terms of quality, till some younger prospects can flourish (Rafael Reis, Silvestre, Freitas, Antunes...)

*As good as Daniel Silva and Vilela are, I just don't think they will get to the same level as these guy's.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The problem is, the internationalisation of Portuguese cycling is coming at the expense of the national scene and meaning fewer and fewer chances for youngsters to come through. On the other hand, those youngsters that DO come through aren't as likely to get trapped in Portugal.

Ferrari is a pretty decent rider. He'd been in the break all day compiling points to keep that jersey, first over Penhas da Saúde and Penhas Douradas, so I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for cracking like an egg on Torre.

3 minutes for the break, Cabreira would climb up to 6th overall if this stayed. However they don't appear to be working together too fantastically, and Márcio Barbosa has just attacked with one of the four Farnese Vini riders in his wheel.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

About that... Anyone saw Cabreira comparing Prio-Tavira performance to Maia-Milaneza .One would think he would like to put those years behind. But there he was talking like a proud man.

Why wouldn't he be proud? João Cabreira has no sense of shame. He's been cleared of more things he's obviously guilty of than OJ Simpson.

 

[Parrulo]

The problem is, the internationalisation of Portuguese cycling is coming at the expense of the national scene and meaning fewer and fewer chances for youngsters to come through. On the other hand, those youngsters that DO come through aren't as likely to get trapped in Portugal.

Ferrari is a pretty decent rider. He'd been in the break all day compiling points to keep that jersey, first over Penhas da Saúde and Penhas Douradas, so I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for cracking like an egg on Torre.

3 minutes for the break, Cabreira would climb up to 6th overall if this stayed. However they don't appear to be working together too fantastically, and Márcio Barbosa has just attacked with one of the four Farnese Vini riders in his wheel.

but with more riders at world tour level there are more chances of portuguese riders getting results that get some publicity in portugal and makes possible for sponsors too realize that there is talent and that investing on portuguese cycling might be a good thing. this would be a very slow process ofc but it can happen. besides eve with the small portuguese scene if every year the better guys leave it will open a spot for a new young gun to shine and mature.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Ribeiro now getting on the front, wants to defend his GC position.

Parrulo, the problem with that is if those guys' teams don't come back and race the Volta. It then doesn't even have the best Portuguese riders, and fewer Portuguese teams, the status is lower and it may be shortened yet again. If it didn't clash with Poland maybe CCC Polsat would have come with Mendes, if it didn't clash with the US races maybe Radioshack would come, if it didn't clash with Burgos maybe Movistar would come. But we need some of these teams and riders at the race in order to at least keep it going, otherwise there will be nothing for those youngsters to come through to.

 

[Parrulo]

Ribeiro now getting on the front, wants to defend his GC position.

Parrulo, the problem with that is if those guys' teams don't come back and race the Volta. It then doesn't even have the best Portuguese riders, and fewer Portuguese teams, the status is lower and it may be shortened yet again. If it didn't clash with Poland maybe CCC Polsat would have come with Mendes, if it didn't clash with the US races maybe Radioshack would come, if it didn't clash with Burgos maybe Movistar would come. But we need some of these teams and riders at the race in order to at least keep it going, otherwise there will be nothing for those youngsters to come through to.

thats a very good point. maybe adjusting a bit the position on the calendar so it doesn't clash with burgos and pologne would be good like you have been sugesting

 

[Broth3r]

Well, Ace has certainly helped. Before him, it's not like we had anyone with good knowledge on Portuguese cycling behind a top team. If we look at the riders that made it out there before him (excluding the old fossils), we see Paulinho and Rui: the first got his break from the 04 Olympics, while the second stood out for his young age. Nelson Oliveira also made it out without him, because of his result on the u-23 TT. But that's the problem: the only way for a Portuguese rider to get out there before Ace was hired for Radioshack was doign something outstanding that made everyone look at them, because absolutely no one had their eyes on Portuguese cycling.

Then Ace brought Machado and Cardoso, who were completely unknown outside of Portugal: the first turned out to be an outstanding rider, while the second has been posting surprisingly (even for me) results. I think that turned people's heads towards our country, and that has already produced results: I doubt Pires would have made it out if it wasn't for that.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Cardoso was signed by Footon last year and had good results, hence why Radioshack picked him up. Nothing to do with Ace. Remember him winning the Stirling stage of the TDU, shocking everyone as Valverde and Evans limped in behind? Oliveira was picked up by Xacobeo-Galicía, and Shack took him on after they collapsed, because otherwise he would have still been under contract.

 

[canyonball]

Parrulo, for now the results aren't showing. The peloton is far from what it was. And so is the Volta. And as good as Rui Costa, Machado and Oliveira are and will be, I don't think their results will be enough to bring attention to the sport inside the country. Not the level of atention you're saying. Just my opinion though. I seriously hope I'm wrong

 

[Libertine Seguros]

For the record, this is the smallest Volta a Portugal peloton since 1993. Hopefully it's pretty cyclical, and we'll see things head back to where they were ten years ago, slow building process. Maybe we can see a rebuilding of the Portuguese pro péloton as better economic times return, remember the days of Milaneza all over the top 10-15 of the Vuelta?

It looks like the break will be fighting out the win, they're still 2 minutes up now. Splintering all over the place though.

 

[Broth3r]

Cardoso was signed by Footon last year and had good results, hence why Radioshack picked him up. Nothing to do with Ace. Remember him winning the Stirling stage of the TDU, shocking everyone as Valverde and Evans limped in behind? Oliveira was picked up by Xacobeo-Galicía, and Shack took him on after they collapsed, because otherwise he would have still been under contract.

...Yeah, stupid me, forgot about Footon. And yeah, I mentioned that Oliveira also didn't need him. But my point stands: for 90% of world cycling, Machado came out of the blue, and that wasn't left unnoticed. When you see someone come out of a cave in the middle of nowhere with a nugget of gold, what do you do?

 

[Parrulo]

For the record, this is the smallest Volta a Portugal peloton since 1993. Hopefully it's pretty cyclical, and we'll see things head back to where they were ten years ago, slow building process. Maybe we can see a rebuilding of the Portuguese pro péloton as better economic times return, remember the days of Milaneza all over the top 10-15 of the Vuelta?

It looks like the break will be fighting out the win, they're still 2 minutes up now. Splintering all over the place though.

thats exactly what i am hoping for.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The Continental cycling scene is like that though, outside of the top level or two. There were people who thought Xavier Tondó came from nowhere in Paris-Nice last year, despite all his successes, even those with Andalucía-Caja Sur in some pretty big races. A lot of regional scenes are hard to pick up details on unless you WANT to (hence me chewing out ACF for going on about Kristoff's achievements but dismissing Kump as someone he'd never heard of - because he hadn't paid attention to Kump's results because he wasn't targeted by his favourite team, he had no idea that Kump probably has more potential than Kristoff) - and of course the Portuguese scene is one of the most self-contained, since there aren't any Pro teams to show up and draw attention to those races the way Liqui and Lampre draw attention to Coppi e Bartali or Movistar and Euskaltel bring interest to the Circuito de Getxo or Vuelta a la Rioja.

The péloton's swallowed João Cabreira now. No GC gains for him. 51 seconds with 8km to go, the breakaway might just have screwed this up badly.

 

[Parrulo]

portugal really needs his own sky kind of sponsor.

it still is beyond me how turismo de portugal hasn't invested in top level cycling while they spend millions on WTCC who gets much smaller exposure then a race like the tour. besides most tourists in portugal come from europe and by investing in cycling they would be showing themselves all around europe.

olivier bonnamissi made a nice article on this subject on his blog some time ago i think.

 

[Parrulo]

nice win for garmin. how old is that guy?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

2km to go, the break still has 35 seconds, but Ribeiro and Gavazzi are loitering with intent as Barbot get on the fornt. Hard to tell who's where in the breakaway now, they're messing about.

Alarcón screwed that sprint badly, attacked early then led out all the way. The Farnese guy had nothing in him to beat him, then Jacob Rathe of Chipotle won the sprint to catch Alarcón.

Messed up badly by Barbot and even more by Farnese Vini since they had 4 people in the original break, but a great win for Rathe for sure.

From the overhead it looks like he spotted the opening early and went; the Caja Rural guy (Diego Milán) saw the gap and went to move into it, but Rathe was already there. Milán looked to have comparable speed but was pre-empted by Rathe, who timed it very well indeed. Think Milán was looking at getting around Alarcón, but didn't account for Rathe.

 

[canyonball]

There's not many companies with that kind of money. Personally, I'm waiting for EDP to make that step. They already have a connection with cycling and they have marketing interests out more than inside of Portugal (where they are already well stablished).

Chipotle takes something out of the Volta. Onda-Boavista is getting none. Last chance tomorrow. And it doesn't look good for them.