76ª Volta a Portugal 30 July -10 August 2014 (2.1)

[trevim]

76ª Volta a Portugal 30 July -10 August 2014 (2.1)

The parcours is out now for the biggest race in the Portuguese calendar. No Algarve or Alentejo again because the towns with teams in the race (Tavira and Loulé) didn't want to pay. I'm glad there's still a race even with all the recession/financial problems so let's take a look to the route:

Prólogo: Fafe-Fafe, 6,8 km (CRI)
Typical city prologue, I think it has some cobbled sections.
Last prologue in Fafe (2011), I'm not sure if it's the same: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reI95Yz58pM

1.ª etapa: Lousada-Maia, 183,5 km
Flat sprint stage I guess.

2.ª etapa: Gondomar-Braga, 171,8 km
Now one of the stages I'm looking forward the most. It will pass in Sameiro and Bom Jesus before finishing in Braga it definitely won't be a big bunch sprint.

 

[trevim]

3.ª etapa: Viana do Castelo-Montalegre, 180 km
The biggest surprise of this years route and the 1st MTF in Serra do Larouco. If the stage suck, the landscape will be magnificent so it's worth watching. It passes in Covide, Caniçada and Montalegre on the way to Larouco.

4.ª etapa: Boticas-Mondim Basto (Senhora da Graça), 192,5 km
I think everyone knows this MTF by now: small differences at the top probably 30s between the entire top10. The second to last climb is Barragem do Alvão a very decent 1st category.
2010 stage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DddAf8VI5E

5.ª etapa: Alvarenga-Santo Tirso (Senhora da Assunção), 161,3 km
3rd MTF of the race: this one is more of a hill top finish. EBH or a similar rider could win here.
2011 stage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsrAKIHNR-w

 

[trevim]

6.ª etapa: Oliveira do Bairro-Viseu, 155 km
Another rolling breakaway stage I think before the rest day. The big climb is Caramulo, a long yet shallow climb.

7.ª etapa: Belmonte-Seia (Torre), 172,5 km
The 4th and last MTF on an HC climb roughly 28km at 5%. As far as I'm concerned, the easiest side to climb to Torre. It's a fun climb anyway that usually gives the best climber the win. But first the riders will have to deal with Penhas da Saúde (really hard climb including roughly 8km @ 8% starting in the center of Covilhã) and Penhas Douradas (not so hard yet punishing enough to deserve 2nd category status).
2009 stage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YEfLVxjO5E

8.ª etapa: Sabugal-Castelo Branco, 194 km
Another flat/breakaway stage.

 

[trevim]

9.ª etapa: Oleiros-Sertã, 28,9 km (CRI)
Medium length TT. It's weird they don't ride it on the opposite direction but don't be fooled with that descent, the power riders will still make a difference there.

10.ª etapa: Burinhosa-Lisboa, 167,1 km.
Flat ceremonial stage.

Teams
Efapel/Glassdrive (Joni Brandao, Garikoitz Bravo, Ricardo Mestre, Sérgio Sousa)
Rádio Popular (Frederico Figueiredo, Nuno Matos, Daniel Silva, Rui Sousa)
LA Alumínios /Antarte (Daniel Freitas, Vítor Gamito, Hugo Sabido, Edgar Pinto)
Louletano/Dunas Douradas (Hernani Broco, Rui Vinhas, Raul Alarcon, Jorge Montenegro)
OFM /Quinta da Lixa (Gustavo Veloso, Arkaitz Duran, Eduard Prades, Ricardo Vilela, Nuno Ribeiro)
Banco Bic/Carmim (Amaro Antunes, David Livramento, Rafael Reis, João Pereira, Manuel Cardoso)
Seleção Portuguesa - Portugal
Caja Rural – Seguros RGA (Arroyo, Ruben Fernandez, Madrazo, LLS, Txurruka, Omar Fraile)
Skydive Dubai (Rafaa Chtioui, Lucas Haedo, Mancebo, Oscar Pujol, Plischin)
4-72 Colombia (Juan Chamorro, Diego Ochoa)
Team Ecuador (Byron Guama, Jordi Simon)
Team Stuttgard (Tino Thomel)
Team Ukyo (Jose Toribio, Ricardo Garcia, Yukihiro Doi)
BDC Marcpol (Kamil Gradek, Pawel Bernas)
Lokosphinx (Evgeny Shalunov, Arkimedes Arguelyes)
Burgos-BH (David Belda, Juan Jose Oroz, Jesus del Pino)

I would prefer to see some development teams like Garmin or Rabobank in the past instead of teams like Stuttgard, Marcpol or Ukyo.
Now the important stuff: Lampre has been in the race in the past with Cunego, Tiralongo or Ale-Jet. Now I demand the World Champion. He can use that race around France as warm up

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The Braga stage is very nice, the kind of thing we've been hoping for from the Volta for some time. The Farinha stage is decent, it has some lead-in climbs, as opposed to the Montalegre stage, so expect that with more difficult stages preceding it and a rest day to follow, we could see a bit more action in the Senhora da Graça stage than in the last few years. Monte Assunção is a third successive MTF in a row, but in an otherwise flat stage it's going to be a hilly sprinter's stage like when Gavazzi won there a couple of years ago; on the other hand this is the first time since 2009 it has been used once GC gaps have already been created, and back then it caused a lot more GC action with Eladio Jiménez and Rubén Plaza picking up a few seconds.

However, after the Lagoa Comprida from Vide climb last year it's a bit of an anticlimax to go back to the Piornos-Penhas Douradas-Torre combo this year - though I readily accept that with the race having an extra high category MTF on the usual plus returning to Santo Tirso, so increasing the category of the "additional" MTF from 3 last year to 2, there is perhaps the need to balance out with a less brutal Torre stage.

That said, the TT is too short. It's generally downhill as well so it will be very fast and this may limit the gaps. This is a more climbing-biased Volta than usual, so it's strange to have a shorter TT rather than upping it to 40km or so to balance the route.

 

[Parrulo]

I have hard time rating this Volta.

The participation is the worst it has ever been, but the route seems a bit better.

A shame they refuse to make the Sra. Da Graça stage harder. If they added the Vizo climb it would become a very good stage.

 

[trevim]

Yep I also noticed the climbing bias and the TT is really weird. Specially in that area, there are lots of roads to make a longer TT with some hills to spice it up.
Braga can be one of the best stages if they don't look too much at each other, it's a really well designed stage showing off most of the best sanctuaries in the city before finishing well in the heart of it. I'm predicting a huge party at the finish line
Regarding the Torre stage, I'll be disappointed until the final climb is from Covilhã the hardest side of the 3 traditional routes.

 

[trevim]

I have hard time rating this Volta.

The participation is the worst it has ever been, but the route seems a bit better.

A shame they refuse to make the Sra. Da Graça stage harder. If they added the Vizo climb it would become a very good stage.

I think (although I'm not sure) Viso is harder to link from the Vila Real side. Obviously it can be done but I think Alvão would be a bit pointless then because it would be too far from the finish.

 

[Broth3r]

Honestly, I'll just be content with the Montalegre MTF, even if on a weak stage. It's... my god, it's a proper non-Torre/Graça MTF! Mindblowing!

The field is absolutely atrocious, though. I really expected a Lampre comeback this year, along with perhaps NetApp and Europcar (they do want to advertise more in the peninsula, after all). Instead, we have a single Pro Conti team and and even worse array of teams not even most cycling fans heard of, that honestly have little place racing in Portugal, and that will hardly ever return again.

 

[jens_attacks]

who cares about world tour/pro teams when you have nuno ribeiro and rui sousa...bring it on!

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Will take this easily.

 

[Jux1893]

It's one of the best courses in recent years. Mainly with Larouco, it will bring a nice prospect to the race. It evens out a seemingly recurrent Torre stage, Covilha - Manteigas - Seia - Torre, rinse and repeat.

I was counting on a Rui Costa appearance with Lampre, but it doesn't look like it.

I hope at least Caja Rural brings Madrazo or Ruben Fernandez, someone worth rooting for, otherwise it will be Boavista youngsters FTW.

 

[Ricco']

It's one of the best courses in recent years. Mainly with Larouco, it will bring a nice prospect to the race. It evens out a seemingly recurrent Torre stage, Covilha - Manteigas - Seia - Torre, rinse and repeat.

I was counting on a Rui Costa appearance with Lampre, but it doesn't look like it.

I hope at least Caja Rural brings Madrazo or Ruben Fernandez, someone worth rooting for, otherwise it will be Boavista youngsters FTW.

Apparently LuisLe said that he will be targeting the Volta and that the two weeks between the end of the Grandíssima and the start of the Vuelta are enough to recover.

 

[Christian]

Quais são os equipos que participam?

Which teams will participate?

I looked at the official site, they have a lot of animation surrounding this race, that is great! I wonder why not more races do this? They have a concert on the rest day, a race for vintage bikes, an "etapa da volta" for everyone... respect! Big 10-day celebration of cycling

/edit: Here are the teams:

Efapel/Glassdrive - Portugal
Rádio Popular - Portugal
LA Alumínios /Antarte - Portugal
Louletano/Dunas Douradas - Portugal
OFM /Quinta da Lixa - Portugal
Banco Bic/Carmim - Portugal
Seleção Portuguesa - Portugal
Caja Rural – Seguros RGA - Espanha
Skydive Dubai - Dubai
4-72 Colombia - Colombia
Team Ecuador - Ecuador
Team Stuttgard - Alemanha
Team Ukyo - Japão
BDC Marcpol - Polónia
LOKOSPHINX - Rússia
Burgos-BH - Espanha

 

[trevim]

Quais são os equipos que participam?

Which teams will participate?

I looked at the official site, they have a lot of animation surrounding this race, that is great! I wonder why not more races do this? They have a concert on the rest day, a race for vintage bikes, an "etapa da volta" for everyone... respect! Big 10-day celebration of cycling

The race is huge in Portugal specially because it's held in August with lots of people taking holidays. The "etapa da volta" usually gets huge participations including several portuguese stars from the past like Candido Barbosa or Marco Chagas. It won't be surprising to see 2000 cyclotourists riding that stage

Regarding the teams: I just updated the front page with the best/more well known riders from each team:

Teams
Efapel/Glassdrive (Joni Brandao, Garikoitz Bravo, Ricardo Mestre, Sérgio Sousa)
Rádio Popular (Frederico Figueiredo, Nuno Matos, Daniel Silva, Rui Sousa)
LA Alumínios /Antarte (Daniel Freitas, Vítor Gamito, Hugo Sabido, Edgar Pinto)
Louletano/Dunas Douradas (Hernani Broco, Rui Vinhas, Raul Alarcon, Jorge Montenegro)
OFM /Quinta da Lixa (Gustavo Veloso, Arkaitz Duran, Eduard Prades, Ricardo Vilela, Nuno Ribeiro)
Banco Bic/Carmim (Amaro Antunes, David Livramento, Rafael Reis, João Pereira, Manuel Cardoso)
Seleção Portuguesa - Portugal
Caja Rural – Seguros RGA (Arroyo, Ruben Fernandez, Madrazo, LLS, Txurruka, Omar Fraile)
Skydive Dubai (Rafaa Chtioui, Lucas Haedo, Mancebo, Oscar Pujol, Plischin)
4-72 Colombia (Juan Chamorro, Diego Ochoa)
Team Ecuador (Byron Guama, Jordi Simon)
Team Stuttgard (Tino Thomel)
Team Ukyo (Jose Toribio, Ricardo Garcia, Yukihiro Doi)
BDC Marcpol (Kamil Gradek, Pawel Bernas)
Lokosphinx (Evgeny Shalunov, Arkimedes Arguelyes)
Burgos-BH (David Belda, Juan Jose Oroz, Jesus del Pino)

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Got to be honest, it's pretty disappointing after last year's lineup with the likes of MTN, Europcar and IAM suggested the race was on the up again, with the best roster since 2009. It'll still be a good race and I will still root for Hernâni Brôco and Arkaitz Durán. Also really hope Amaro Antunes can break out with this more climbing-biased course, because him destroying the field on the brutal São Macário climb in the Volta do Futuro a few years ago really stuck in my memory and he hasn't really shown that on the big stage yet.

 

[trevim]

Got to be honest, it's pretty disappointing after last year's lineup with the likes of MTN, Europcar and IAM suggested the race was on the up again, with the best roster since 2009. It'll still be a good race and I will still root for Hernâni Brôco and Arkaitz Durán. Also really hope Amaro Antunes can break out with this more climbing-biased course, because him destroying the field on the brutal São Macário climb in the Volta do Futuro a few years ago really stuck in my memory and he hasn't really shown that on the big stage yet.

Amaro Antunes should have plenty of freedom considering Tavira doesn't really have a GC rider anymore. Livramento is a decent climber but it's not worth putting all the team behind him.
So basically I'm looking forward to see if Rafael Reis and Amaro can breakthrough and get the hell out of Portugal to a decent team abroad.

 

[Ricco']

I am with high hopes for Amaro and also for Frederico Figueiredo.

The first is doing a strong season overall, I think I can say it's the best since he started to compete regularly with the pro's and I think that a top-10 is quite possible this year.

Fred is a bit more limited with the likes of Rui Sousa, Daniel Silva and César Fonte in the team but top-10s in Alentejo and Castilla y Leon and a strong performance in Route du Sud are good credits to his ability, although the lack of experience doing 10 days of competition might be a factor too.

 

[jens_attacks]

how is vito gamito's health? is he ok now?
i hope he wins a mtf!

 

[trevim]

how is vito gamito's health? is he ok now?
i hope he wins a mtf!

His health is perfectly fine, he started competition only 14th June in GP Abimota finishing 10 minutes down alongside Alejandro Marque on a rolling stage. Other than that, he rode a small TTT were he got dropped. His main concern, according to his Facebook is to be good enough to fetch some bottles for the team in August. He sees his comeback from a PR point of view; he's not aiming for any sort of personal results.
I think there's hope though: he placed second in a GranFondo (outsprinted in the end) a couple of weeks ago, taking 30 minutes on Don Miguel Indurain and about 2 hours on my humble self. If that's not TdF winning shape then I probably should train harder
Earlier in the year, in another smaller race (one that he actually won), I managed to ride on his wheel/group for some km's and I have to say I wasn't immediately on my limit so that doesn't reflect too well on his shape...then I dropped a bottle and I never saw him again until the finish do I guess he was just warming up

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

Gamito? Pffff...

Bring back Candido Barbosa for some sprinter friendly Volta course. He needs to finally win this race.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

gamito did a top ten at national itt. that's pretty good

 

[Arredondo]

Will Chamorro even start here? Because Vuelta a Colombia starts at 6th August.

And the Tour of Alsace starts on the same as Portugal.

 

[trevim]

Tomorrow is the start of Troféu Joaquim Agostinho, the last portuguese stage race before the Volta: prologue + 3 road stages with a MTF on Carvoeira.

Foreign teams:
- Burgos - BH (ESP)
- Bridgestone Anchor Cycling Team (JPN)
- Team Equador
- Keith Mobel
- Etixx
- Andalucia
- 4-72 - Colombia
- GSC Blagnac
- Lokosphinix

 

[trevim]

Troféu Joaquim Agostinho
Prologue
1 DE LA PARTE GONZALEZ Víctor Efapel - Glassdrive 09:25
2 SOKOLOV Dmitry Lokosphinx st
3 SHILOV Sergey Lokosphinx 0:03
4 CESAR VELOSO Gustavo OFM - Quinta da Lixa 0:04
5 SVESHNIKOV Kiril Lokosphinx 0:05
6 FERNANDEZ CRUZ Delio OFM - Quinta da Lixa 0:06
7 LOUBET Julien 0:10