The Toxic Avengers Return: Volta a Portugal 2023

[DNP-Old]

Who the heck complained? (ok, doctors and health officials maybe)

Nocentini once had a meltdown and threatened to quit when Balarcon and Antunes put 5 minutes into everyone bar a very unknown Neilands on Torre. Those were the days...

 

[Mayomaniac]

Nocentini once had a meltdown and threatened to quit when Balarcon and Antunes put 5 minutes into everyone bar a very unknown Neilands on Torre. Those were the days...

Everyone who rode on a PCT team seemed to have a meltdown during those days, even Delfino was shocked...

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Txomin Juaristi doesn't have any problem getting onto the podium, winning the stage and climbing up to 2nd on GC, with Mauricio Moreira settling for 2nd on the day. Colin Stüssi just sneaks past a surprisingly strong Antônio Carvalho for 3rd, around 26 seconds back from Juaristi. Maté is 6th and Nych 7th, but they were unable to protect their spots from Juaristi and Carvalho, who climbs to 3rd on GC too. The biggest loser of the day is Henrique Casimiro, who dropped four places on the GC by finishing 1'24 down. Figueiredo lost a couple of minutes but he didn't lose out on the GC there because none of the riders within striking distance did much better. The big difference lower down was Mikel Iturria climbing three spots to re-enter the top 10 giving Euskaltel three riders in it, and Jesús del Pino dropping a long way - looks like it must be due to a penalty.

 

[Skijumper Roglic fan]

Wow, Stüssi wins Volta a Portugal. Quite a surprise.

Now he‘ll probably receive nice contract offers for 2024 and beyond. PCT, maybe even WT level.

 

[Tim Cahill]

'Colin Stussi' takes what I can only describe as the strangest race I've seen in a long time

Maybe this race is an answer to the age-old question of who would win if none of them were taking any drugs

Some random Swiss guy. That's the answer.

(Probably not though obviously)

 

[Skijumper Roglic fan]

'Colin Stussi' takes what I can only describe as the strangest race I've seen in a long time

Maybe this race is an answer to the age-old question of who would win if none of them were taking any drugs

Some random Swiss guy. That's the answer.

(Probably not though obviously)

Yeah, I also don’t know what to think about this year‘s Volta.

I‘m obviously happy for Stüssi and the Euskaltel guys, Mate and so on.

I again cheered for Calum Johnston, because he seems a good guy, so why not… Sadly, the man gets worse, all the time, and just is not good enough. Anyways, I hope Caja Rural keep him on board. A Scot riding for Caja Rural is rather rare, and if he wants to stay, why not. Caja‘s roster is so „weak“, anyways, that Johnston is not even their weakest man… ;-)

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Nice win for Txomin and his team. It's a shame Bizkarra crashed in Occitanie, cause he it looks like he could have possibly won the race.

But also congratulations to Stüssi for a job well done. He's out of contract, so it will be interesting to see if a bigger team will be willing to take a chance on him.