I mean what was the trouble with Efapel tactics yesterday?
This succession of posts was pretty funny:
And suddenly, when any reasonable reader would have assumed Efapel was on the verge of forfeiting the race, reality briefly seeps in:
Not only they won the stage, but they also got their strongest rider back in contention (after being 1:00 and 40 seconds down to two exponentially stronger time trialists) and have now 2 men in the top-5.
And they achieved all this by basically following wheels and not doing much work at all themselves.
Stepping up the pace on the approach to the cobbled climb in Guarda isn't "chasing their own team" - it's preparing the attack from Mauricio Moreira, who is a much stronger puncheur than Marque and the W52 guys. And it worked just fine - he put 22 seconds on Marque and 16 on Rodigues.
Cutting some margin to the leading duo was a good thing - it'll always be extremely difficult for Figueiredo to come ahead in a mano-a-mano with Antunes when there's a sizable TT at the end and he's already down 25 seconds. Having Moreira lurking - even though I personally believe he'll struggle in the Barreiro+Senhora da Graça stage if not before - is their best chance of getting something, they need some uncertainty and high variance.
So they needed to play on two boards: having the front duo have enough of a gap to force the Tavira guys to go all in and at least eliminate Veloso; but not to the point of turning the race a 1v1 Antunes-Figueiredo. Plus, of course, the stage victory. They thicked all three boxes and somehow people think that's bad tactics?
Even though they apparently had radio problems, it worked rather well to have Figueiredo just following Antunes' wheel, then helping out when Mas came to the front of the peloton between the climbs and dramatically cut the gap. And then trying to implode the group and make it unpleasant to Marque when the last climb started.
Nothing decisive; however in road cycling it's often the case the best tactics are the ones you don't commit to. Just make gradual gains and live to fight another stage. That's what they did... while also winning a stage. Considering they're facing a super-team that in years past has cannibalized the entire race, it's nothing to snigger about.
Nothing wrong whatsoever with their tactics.