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

[Hugo87]

Welcome back Big Mac.

Edgar Pinto very well, the most strong Portuguese candidate for this race.

 

[BigMac]

Welcome back Big Mac.

Edgar Pinto very well, the most strong Portuguese candidate for this race.

Thanks, Hugo.

 

[trevim]

Prologue (Stage & GC)
1. ESP DE LA PARTE GONZALEZ Victor EFG 08'56" 20
2. ESP CESAR VELOSO Gustavo OFM 04" 10
3. ESP SANCHEZ GIL Luis Leon CJR 10" 5
4. RUS SHILOV Sergey LOK 14" 3
5. POR PINTO Edgar Miguel Lemos LAA 15" 0
6. GER SCHUMACHER Stefan CTO 15" 0
7. POR SOUSA Sergio Ferreira EFG 17" 0
8. ESP TORIBIO ALCOLEA Jose Vicente UKO 19" 0
9. ESP FERNANDEZ CRUZ Delio OFM 20" 0
10. ESP FERNANDEZ ANDUJAR Ruben CJR 21" 0
11. POR VILELA Ricardo Augusto Afonso OFM 22" 0
12. POR BRANDAO Joni Silva EFG 24" 0
13. POR SILVA Daniel Eduardo Moreira BOA 28" 0
14. POR SABIDO Hugo Manuel Madeira LAA 28" 0
15. ESP OROZ UGALDE Juan Jose BUR 29" 0
16. POR MESTRE Ricardo Jorge Correia EFG 31" 0
17. GER WERDA Maximilian STG 31" 0
18. POR CARDOSO Filipe Duarte Sousa EFG 32" 0
19. GER GEBAUER Tim STG 32" 0
20. POR SILVA Bruno Duarte Ferreira EFG 32" 0

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Very strong from de la Parte. He's a strong rider who can climb pretty well as well. Won the Sibiu Tour a couple of years ago - was seen as a very promising young Spanish rider but he was the biggest name that was caught up in the Xavier Tondó bust if I remember rightly, and has been in semi-exile with SP Tableware in Greece for the last two years.

César starting strong as well, he has to be the favourite this year. LuLu will surely find some of the climbing excessive as he will presumably be looking to peak in a month's time rather than now; he's a strong enough rider he'll still be in the mix, but some of the riders peaking for this on strong Portuguese teams will make it tough for him.

It's good to see Edgar Pinto starting well, mainly as LA-Antarte are my favourite of the local teams and he was very strong last year, a bit of a surprise package.

On the minus side, Hernâni Brôco lost 32 seconds () and as you all know I'm a big Brôco mark. Arkaitz Durán, my favourite estrangeiro in the Portuguese péloton, at 35". Madrazo at 40", but he will salvage his race by being Ángel Madrazo.

On the plus side, Rui Sousa lost 34". Nuno Ribeiro at 36".

Amaro Antunes, like a good pure climber, lost 50". Chamorro at 1'20".

 

[Bavarianrider]

Surley that has to be te weirdest TT of al time What will the average speed like? 60?

Anyway, i hope Schumacher can finish in the top 10 in the GC.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

it was a prologue.

 

[roundabout]

it was a prologue.

He means stage 9 or whenever that TT will be

 

[Dazed and Confused]

He means stage 9 or whenever that TT will be

ah ok, descending 250m over 10km or so.

29km total. Doubt we get close to 60 km/h.

 

[Netserk]

How well do you (generic) think Rubén Fernández will do? Podium a possibility?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Very much an outside chance. I'd like to see him show well, however with Luísle and also Marcos García on the same team I see him being here more for experience and to possibly stagehunt along with Fraile and possibly Madrazo rather than with the team banking on serious GC ambition of his own; unless he's been asked to specifically target A Volta as well, anticipate the podium to be made up of riders on the local teams unless LuLu is up to the challenge. If he rides for GC, he'll hang in there on Monte Assunção and not lose too much to Farinha, but I think Torre will be too much for him. Will be interesting to see how he goes though.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Surley that has to be te weirdest TT of al time What will the average speed like? 60?

Anyway, i hope Schumacher can finish in the top 10 in the GC.

why? they go downhil wiothless than 1%?

 

[Arredondo]

Chamorro already lost 1.21. Auch

Osorio with a good time, the likely GC guy for them? Or is he too young to really be a factor? Do they go for Chamorro still?

Curious to see too if Parra finally can show something of his talent. His transfer to Caja-Rural was horrible from the start, hope he can be a factor in this race.

 

[trevim]

I would like to see Vilela to ride for himself but he would need Nibali-like luck for that to happen

 

[trevim]

He's not in the Prologue start order.

The whole story regarding Ruben Guerreiro: he was supposed to ride but then he felt tired after the Volta ao Futuro and he didn't want to quit after 4/5 stages even though the team manager was happy with that. Now he's focusing on the Tour de l'Avenir: it's a good choice, if he rides well there, he'll be way closer to an international contract.

http://www.record.xl.pt/Modalidades/Ciclismo/volta_a_portugal/2014/interior.aspx?content_id=897248

 

[jens_attacks]

24 km to go
http://www.rtp.pt/play/direto/rtp1

nice stream

let's see if we won't have a bunch sprint today

 

[jens_attacks]

look at that beautiful portuguese infrastructure. beautiful

 

[jens_attacks]

all together now

 

[jens_attacks]

thrilling finale. ll sanchez caught in the last 300 meters

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Very good win for Bauhaus as well. There's more than just Herklotz at Team Stölting, he's put together a pretty useful season.

BAUHAUS winning on World Goth Day. You couldn't make it up.

Edit: turns out in fact you really couldn't make it up, as World Goth Day is apparently in May, so I don't know why one of my friends decided to bring it up today. But still, a guy called Bauhaus is pretty cool.

1 Phil Bauhaus (Team Stölting) GER
2 Manuel Cardoso (Banco BIC-Carmim) POR +st
3 Davide Vigano (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) ITA +st
4 Filipe Cardoso (Efapel-Glassdrive) POR +st
5 Sergey Shilov (Lokosphinx) RUS +st
6 Yukihiro Doi (Team Ukyo) JPN +st
7 Asbjørn Kragh Andersen (Team Christina Watches-Kuma) DEN +st
8 Samuel Caldeira (OFM-Quinta da Lixa) POR +st
9 Francesco Lasca (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) ITA +st
10 Cesar Fonte (Radio Popular-Onda) POR +st

 

[trevim]

Such a shame Cardoso couldn't win. Maybe tomorrow if the climbs are ridden reaaaaaaaally slow

 

[theyoungest]

Very good win for Bauhaus as well. There's more than just Herklotz at Team Stölting, he's put together a pretty useful season.

BAUHAUS winning on World Goth Day. You couldn't make it up.

Edit: turns out in fact you really couldn't make it up, as World Goth Day is apparently in May, so I don't know why one of my friends decided to bring it up today. But still, a guy called Bauhaus is pretty cool.

The sports papers will have a field day. Bauhaus Winning in Glorious Stijl.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Such a shame Cardoso couldn't win. Maybe tomorrow if the climbs are ridden reaaaaaaaally slow

Tomorrow's stage has the potential to be really great if ridden hard.

Scenic too, with Sameiro near the finish.

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

With the ridicilous number of four MTFs coming in the next days, why should anyone make this race hard already on stage 2?

........

Great to see Bauhaus win a stage at a 2.1 race, but there's not much competition here. His win at the 1.2 race in Denmark had better riders to beat.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

With the ridicilous number of four MTFs coming in the next days, why should anyone make this race hard already on stage 2?

There's certainly the potential. Time can be made up here, and there's the potential for a breakaway win by somebody who maybe wouldn't be a GC threat ordinarily but who can hold on to gains made. This happens sometimes in A Volta, Brôco's 2010 GC was off the back of a penultimate mountain forage in the Senhora da Graça stage, Sabido's great 2012 was started off by a stage 1 breakaway.

Even without that, there are a number of peripheral contenders who are not protected riders in their team who could attack and put pressure on tomorrow, thus giving other teammates free reign to follow, with the two MTFs at the weekend to follow. For OFM, sure we won't see César in an attack and probably not Délio Fernández either, but the péloton would have to be on watch for Nuno Ribeiro, Arkaitz Durán or Ricardo Vilela. Sérgio Sousa is a break specialist who finished on the podium of the Vuelta a Asturias in 2011 so is absolutely no mug in the mountains if he gets given a bit of rope, if not Ricardo Mestre is a former Volta winner getting a free ride. I know Efapel already hold the Camisola Amarela though (which is a shame as I'd love to see Joni Brandão go ballistic tomorrow). Sure we won't see Edgar Pinto, Ricardo Mestre, Gustavo César or Hernâni Brôco moving. And they'd all be on it like glue if Rui Sousa tried something. But there are some people who might not be marked so tightly who could still be up there come Lisboa. And as for the estrangeiros, I have but two words: Ángel Madrazo.

 

[trevim]

With the ridicilous number of four MTFs coming in the next days, why should anyone make this race hard already on stage 2?

Because it's the biggest goal of the season for all the portuguese teams. Winning a stage is already great, if someone feels like it, there will be spectacle regardless of what is to come.

Tomorrow's stage has the potential to be really great if ridden hard.

Scenic too, with Sameiro near the finish.

Yeah Braga is a beautiful city and the finish is right there in the center. Not only Sameiro but also Bom Jesus
It has the potential to be this years best stage altough I'm curious to see what Larouco has to offer.