At 5km to go the fugitives are caught again. David Rodrigues goes out the back like a bowling ball, Vinhas does a better job of staying in there. W52 are obliterating it with their pace, but Caldeira, their designated sprinter, has gone, so wonder if they're hoping for more seconds for César or something. Domingos Gonçalves tries to escape with 3km to go but he won't get away. A second kick, but W52 just have too much strength even if they only have 3 riders left coming into the final kilometre. Very reduced bunch due to the rolling, undulating stage and the tough run-in. Very strange drag of a sprint, after Balarcón sat up to let Antunes ride away in the leadout and then we had a very slow 500m grind of the GC men sprinting, García de Mateos did the work to chase Antunes, then let Sporting's duo do the leadout, Daniel Mestre came up on the left very fast but went just too early and faded dramatically in the final metres allowing Vicente García de Mateos to sneak past him for the win at the last second. Very importantly, though, in addition to the bonus seconds, there was a time gap behind the first few, and Balarcón was behind it so GdM takes a bit more time - it will be key for tomorrow's stage when he is likely to be heavily outnumbered by the W52 troops, with likely only David de la Fuente for company if the Quinta da Lixa team take it as thermonuclear on Torre as many anticipate.
zlev11 said:
de Mateos is awesome. world tour next year? :razz:
I think Barbio, who won yesterday, might have an ok shot. García de Mateos is 29 so has plenty of hope compared to many of the others here, but more likely to be Pro Conti, however Caja Rural's misadventure with Gallego shuts that route off. Barbio is only 23, finished on the podium of the Volta do Futuro twice in his teens, and is starting to emerge after a couple of quiet years. He's got a sprint of sorts, a decent time trial level and can get over some mid-sized obstacles as he showed yesterday. He's young enough that the taint of Portuguese cycling on him isn't indelible yet.
Top 10 this stage:
1 Vicente García de Mateos Rubio (Louletano-Hospital de Loulé) ESP 4'06'39
2 Daniel Mestre (Efapel) POR +st
3 Marco Tizza (GM Europa Ovini) ITA +st
4 Gustavo César Veloso (W52-FC Porto) ESP +st
5 Rinaldo Nocentini (Sporting-Tavira) ITA +st
6 Krists Neilands (Israel Cycling Academy) LAT +st
7 Fabian Lienhard (Team Vorarlberg) SUI +3"
8 Raúl Alarcón García (W52-FC Porto) ESP +st
9 César Fonte (LA-Metalusa Blackjack) POR +st
10 Alejandro Marque Porto (Sporting-Tavira) ESP +st
Edit: updated GC, just the queen stage and the ITT to come:
1 Raúl Alarcón García (W52-FC Porto) ESP
2 Vicente García de Mateos Rubio (Louletano-Hospital de Loulé) ESP +14"
3 Rinaldo Nocentini (Sporting-Tavira) ITA +19"
4 Gustavo César Veloso (W52-FC Porto) ESP +26"
5 Amaro Antunes (W52-FC Porto) POR +34"
6 João Benta (Rádio Popular-Boavista) POR +1'35"
7 António Carvalho (W52-FC Porto) POR +1'58"
8 Henrique Casimiro (Efapel) POR +2'08"
9 Sérgio Paulinho (Efapel) POR +st
10 Alejandro Marque Porto (Sporting-Tavira) ESP +st