De la Fuente has been in Portugal for three years now, but it's only now that he's reaching a satisfactory age to be allowed to contend for the Volta.
Today's break is Pablo Guerrero (Rádio Popular-Boavista), João Matias (LA-Antarte), Roy Goldstein (Israel Cycling Academy), Travis Samuel (H&R Block), Jim Lindenburg (Metec-TKH) and Antonio di Sante (GM Europa Ovini). Marco Molteni (Trevigiani) and Patrick Jäger (Vorarlberg) are chasing on. Four minutes' lead with the long gradual grind to come before the likely sprint type finish in Castelo Branco. Matias is well placed after a good finish yesterday, but LA look to have their eyes set on the mountains prize after Fonte yesterday and now Matias today.
The Volta a Portugal is like a window into another world, it's like an elaborate parallel universe of cycling where usual rules and tactics don't apply. In the Volta, chasing your teammate is always the right tactic. In the Volta, team leadership and support is to be decided by age rather than strength. And going to Portugal to be annihilated in brutal heat by the August machines is becoming as much a rite of passage for lower end Dutch and German continental teams as being sent to the Peace Race to be battered on cobbles by the Poles, Soviets and East Germans was in the 70s and 80s for the elite amateurs of western Europe.
With 20k remaining the break has split in two, Samuel, Lindenburg and di Sante have around 20" on the other four from the break, the chasing duo are slightly behind that, and the bunch is still nearly 3 minutes back on the leaders - Efapel lining up on one side of the road and W52 not seeming like they want to go full gas to catch this. Armée de Terre seem to want to have a sprint, however, so are really drilling the bunch and have taken a fair few seconds straight from the word go. Not sure who would sprint for them, maybe Jordan Levasseur? Filipe Cardoso would have been another candidate but he's just been involved in a crash and is chasing back on with Nikodemus Holler and Adriano Brogi. JLT have some guys with a decent turn of pace and experience (none more so than Russell Downing) but not sure how into the speed of this race they are, peaking for next month's Tour of Britain and with their main sightings thus far having been being dropped.
...yea, the break is cooked, with the péloton now flying, taking nearly 2 minutes in 6km. Matias has attacked the pursuing group as they're about to be swallowed, while Samuel has attacked his breakmates at the front. I miss the orange LA jerseys, these ones look too much like the 2008 ones for comfort (even though that was actually a different team, based out of the União Ciclista da Maia, and this one is the former Fercase team). Samuel has been brought back and they're all working cohesively again. It all makes no sense. This is the Volta.