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

[Broth3r]

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).

Great idea. It can work even better if they do it under the Renováveis brand, given that in that field they are one of the best, if not the best in the world. How many electric companies sponsor teams, currently?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

 

[Parrulo]

i am a benfica fan but lost all hope in benfica after the bailed on the second season last time they had a cycling team. pathetic really

the club has been improving financially over the last few years so maybe in the long future the project returns. would be cool if porto and sporting also returned to cycling.

 

[canyonball]

Lol...how many times will they come back, just to give up. It would be great, because it would mobilize tons of fans.

If you look at how football is run, they are all about spending the money and demanding unrealistic results. And that's what they did last time they were involved in cycling. If you're going to build a poruguese team from scratch they need to be patient and they just aren't...at all.

That kit is a favorite of mine, btw. It looked good on the road.

 

[Broth3r]

The problem with Benfica was impatience, pure and simple. They had the resources, they had the riders, they had good sponsors, but they pulled the plug on the poject simply because they couldn't win the Volta within two years. Pathetic.

Also LOL is that Jel in front on the podium?

 

[canyonball]

I also think the team imploded due to the mix of Benfica and Cândido. It's just too much the fans' hearts.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yea, the kit was slick, and if they'd just shown a bit more patience then they could have been a real step forward.

That they paid the subs to be ProContinental might be a bit of a mistake when we look back on it. I mean, which races did they do that they wouldn't have had access to as a Continental team, the same as all the other Portuguese squads?
- Tour de Luxembourg
- Bayern Rundfahrt

The rest was all .1s, save for the Volta! And really, how much coverage were those two races going to get them? Enough to justify the travel?

They could have built more slowly, use the money saved from the ProContinental licence to get a couple more riders in or perhaps get themselves into a few more .1 races outside of Iberia.

Of course, one thing that has really hurt Portuguese cycling, but that they can't do anything about, is the loss of a number of Spanish races (eg Comunidad Valenciana, Aragón, Clásica Alcobendas) that they used to do - but perhaps even more the loss of a number of Spanish ProContinental and Continental TEAMS that used to come and ride Portuguese races, making not only the Volta, but races like Santarem, the GP CTT Correios and the GP Paredes Rota dos Móveis, events where the Portuguese teams could face major outsiders. Now, it's not worth putting up the .1 status for anything like those races, because with only 4 Portuguese Continental teams you're barring the likes of Loulé (who stepped down from professional status this year) and the quality feeder teams from entering, and for what? It's not like you're getting riders of the quality that Relax-GAM, Catalunya-Angel Mir, Comunidad Valenciana, Fuerteventura-Canarias and Xacobeo-Galicía used to bring.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Of course, we already had somebody try to do this, start an all-Portuguese, all-progressive team, backed by a sponsor with both national and international presence, compliant to the bio-passport. Unfortunately, their superiors in the US weren't so happy about it.

 

[Parrulo]

Of course, we already had somebody try to do this, start an all-Portuguese, all-progressive team, backed by a sponsor with both national and international presence, compliant to the bio-passport. Unfortunately, their superiors in the US weren't so happy about it.

don't even mention that. it breaks my heart that vitor rodrigues retired because of that

 

[ISDfan]

Where are the results of stage 9 ?

 

[Parrulo]

Classificação da nona etapa:
1. Jacob Rathe, EUA (Chipotle), 4:24.16 horas.
(média: 45.192 km/h).
2. Diego Milan, Esp (Caja Rural)m.t.
3. Davide Ricci Bitti, Ita (Farnese Vini) m.t.
4. Raul Alarcon, Esp (Barbot-Efapel) m.t.
5. Matteo Rabottini, Ita (Farnese Vini) m.t.
6. Aitor Perez Arrieta, Esp (Lampre) m.t.
7. Diego Caccia, Ita (Farnese Vini) m.t.
8. Julien Antomarchi, Fra (La Pomme) m.t.
9. César Fonte, Por (Barbot-Efapel) m.t.
10. Francesco Gavazzi, Ita (Lampre) m.t.

 

[canyonball]

Look at this. On the same day he won a stage at Volta a Portugal, Jacob Rathe steps up from Chipotle to Garmin Cervelo. Well done! Link

(I know, I know, probably the contract was drawn long ago, but it's a cool story nonetheless...)

 

[craig1985]

I'm wondering, would the Volta be better served if they could change their dates? It must be hard for teams to race when they have to send teams to Poland, ENECO Tour, for teams with US sponsors/interests, Utah and Colorado, also l'Ain, Burgos, and Denmark. RS could send a solid team around Paulinho, Cardoso, Machado, and Olivieria, but they the two aforementioned WT races and Utah which is important for their sponsor, or failing that, something for Bottle to beat up on.

 

[canyonball]

It may look like it's over, but there's one more stage today!

20 km to go.Alex Howes, Siskevicius and Daniel Silva with 40 seconds over the peloton.

Edit: End of the stage. End of the Volta. There was a fall inside km 2, so about six riders got a small gap on the peloton. Among them Samuel Caldeira, Sérgio Ribeiro and Francesco Gavazzi. Ribeiro was launched by his teammates, but Gavazzi was stronger and won with ease.

1. Francesco Gavazzi
2.Sérgio Ribeiro
3.Samuel Caldeira
4.Delio Fernandez (?)
5.Felipe Cardoso (?)

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I'm wondering, would the Volta be better served if they could change their dates? It must be hard for teams to race when they have to send teams to Poland, ENECO Tour, for teams with US sponsors/interests, Utah and Colorado, also l'Ain, Burgos, and Denmark. RS could send a solid team around Paulinho, Cardoso, Machado, and Olivieria, but they the two aforementioned WT races and Utah which is important for their sponsor, or failing that, something for Bottle to beat up on.

I was thinking maybe a week later, so that it no longer clashes with Burgos, and the likes of Orbea can show up, and the Androni and Acqua e Sapone guys who do Burgos can do it too.

I'm also a little disappointed they didn't look to a couple of the Brazilian continental teams like Funvic-Marcondes César and Clube DataRo - costs were probably prohibitive, but since Barbot and Prio have both done some racing in Brazil in the last few years, maybe a swapsy could have been interesting.

The problem is that moving the Volta entails a wholesale shift in the Portuguese calendar; it has its particular warmup events (the Trofeu Joaquim Agostinho-GP Torres Vedras in particular is well entrenched in July) and moving these about to fit a new slot for the Volta may be problematic. I wouldn't mind it moving to July to tell the truth - it could then be the #1 alternative to the Tour (at least as long as the Österreichrundfahrt insists on producing an even more repetitive parcours than the Volta), or the #2 after the Österreichrundfahrt.

Also, since Catalunya moved to March, the Vuelta a Madrid has moved its way over to May to take that slot; the Vuelta a Madrid used to be in July (and was used as a warmup for the Volta by Portuguese teams a fair bit, especially Liberty Seguros) - now, however, July is something of a lull in the Spanish calendar, save for a couple of Basque one day races at the end of the month (of course there's San Sebastián too, but that's a World Tour race, so not so likely to have too much overlap with the Volta's crowd).

The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. The Volta runs quite late in the day because of the heat, and they could tack coverage onto the end of the Tour - the problem is you wouldn't necessarily get as much coverage, and the extensive coverage and high quality presentation is one of the best things about the Volta. But I could certainly see the likes of Radioshack sending their youngsters to learn the GT art in Portugal while the A-squad is in the US, because they could then take a bit of a break and ride the Vuelta.

I think the coverage thing, and having to move races like Torres Vedras, is going to be the biggest obstacle to that, however.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Not ready to let this thread die, just yet.
I finished watching the final stage, this afternoon, while recording Tre Valli! (which, quelle surprise, I haven't seen yet.)

I only discovered this race, about 5 or 6 years ago, thanks to the old motorized sat dish.
Casual interest has grown into a genuine love for the event. It's not just a simple bike race, more a celebration of summer, with all it's excesses and extremes.
My anticipation at it's start, it only matched by the empty feeling I get at the end of a GT. I get the first hint of autumn and the impending gloom of the closed season, even before the Vuelta has begun. (Yes, I must be an eternal pessimist)

As for this edition, it wasn't the greatest. I said the same after last year, but the quality of field inevitably leads to dominance from a couple of teams.
Still, in terms of stage wins, foreign squads took their fair share.

I am concerned for the race's future, given the precarious financial situation the race finds iteslf in and the state of the Protuguese economy in general.
Hopefully, this time next year, things will be on a more even keel.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

If Broco and Cardoso are off to Caja Rural as reported, it adds another level of worry. Those guys do deserve a chance to step up, but the Volta kind of needs them to be coming back and racing it.