• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

Volta a Portugal (2.1) 29/7 - 9/8

Page 9 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Yea, practically no Spanish calendar for post-Vuelta to do, nothing pro left in Portugal, and can't imagine too many other places would have them. Crazy strength from them, but I don't know whether to feel bad that the LA-Antarte guys I wanted to see do well did badly, or good that Horner lost a bit more time. The Xacobeo duo's success last year was like child's play compared to this year's slaughter.
 
Re:

Valv.Piti said:
I dont understand one bit of portuguese, nor do I know any of those riders.

Oh well, I guess ill have to watch the shitty race going on over in Poland. :p

I was watching this although I also don't speak one bit of Portugeuse and my Polish is pretty good.

The scenery is breathtaking, just a shame that I was shouting for Brandao, against Rui Leipheimer and Postal Portugal.
 
A bit disappointed with Amaro and Figueiredo, I really wish they could shine their way out of the toxic portuguese scene into some team with a decent calendar. Caja Rural, maybe some other pro continental team or even Lampre, they have worse riders than these 2.

Also hoping Antonio Carvalho and Joni can make the jump out of here.

Disappointed with David Rodrigues as well, he was the white jersey last year
 
Aug 7, 2015
9
0
0
Visit site
As noticed in the clinic forum, some performances during this race have fallen under suspicion, while overlooking both the downside of being Galician as well as the advantages of racing in Portugal. The contrast between them and the other participants in the Volta, has to do with the foreign riders, among others the Dutch and Flemish (dutch speaking Belgians) riders who have a serious lack of talent, determination and pride. Therefore these Dutch and Flemish teams should not sign up for a race like this to begin with. Since these Dutch and Flemish will never reach a Grand Tour, the Volta is unnecessary for them to test whether they are able to sustain a race of over a week containing mountain finishes and a long time trial. Since only Portugese and Galician riders are shining, it would be no harm to classify this race as 2.NC / 2.NE or 2.2, merely to exclude these unmotivated and untalented foreign riders.
 
Jun 24, 2013
543
0
0
Visit site
Re:

Something fishy said:
As noticed in the clinic forum, some performances during this race have fallen under suspicion, while overlooking both the downside of being Galician as well as the advantages of racing in Portugal. The contrast between them and the other participants in the Volta, has to do with the foreign riders, among others the Dutch and Flemish (dutch speaking Belgians) riders who have a serious lack of talent, determination and pride. Therefore these Dutch and Flemish teams should not sign up for a race like this to begin with. Since these Dutch and Flemish will never reach a Grand Tour, the Volta is unnecessary for them to test whether they are able to sustain a race of over a week containing mountain finishes and a long time trial. Since only Portugese and Galician riders are shining, it would be no harm to classify this race as 2.NC / 2.NE or 2.2, merely to exclude these unmotivated and untalented foreign riders.

I know you're trolling, but still... A guy like Gaetan Bille is not untalented. They just invited the wrong teams, because you can't expect a Belgian or Dutch CT team to have a climber when there's absolutely no need to have one.
 
Aug 7, 2015
9
0
0
Visit site
Re: Re:

De Snelle Duif said:
Something fishy said:
As noticed in the clinic forum, some performances during this race have fallen under suspicion, while overlooking both the downside of being Galician as well as the advantages of racing in Portugal. The contrast between them and the other participants in the Volta, has to do with the foreign riders, among others the Dutch and Flemish (dutch speaking Belgians) riders who have a serious lack of talent, determination and pride. Therefore these Dutch and Flemish teams should not sign up for a race like this to begin with. Since these Dutch and Flemish will never reach a Grand Tour, the Volta is unnecessary for them to test whether they are able to sustain a race of over a week containing mountain finishes and a long time trial. Since only Portugese and Galician riders are shining, it would be no harm to classify this race as 2.NC / 2.NE or 2.2, merely to exclude these unmotivated and untalented foreign riders.

I know you're trolling, but still... A guy like Gaetan Bille is not untalented.
Bille is 27 years old and still roaming in the continental circuit. Apart from some conti races and his outstanding result in the Tour of Belgium, the guy proved to have absolutely no added value in the few WT races he raced so far. Apart from Bille, who is actually a Wallloon, the other dutch and flemish guys are just some untalented riders with as it seems a desultory race program which won't bring them any further.

They just invited the wrong teams, because you can't expect a Belgian or Dutch CT team to have a climber when there's absolutely no need to have one.
It is deemed to be the end responsibility of the teams itself to decide whether they participate or not, hence it's up to these teams to decide whether they need a climber or not. There are so many races which contain flat stages that are more suitable for such teams and therefore the Volta wouldn't be their best choice.

If you don't endorse my post, don't automatically assume that I was trolling, which I wasn't.
 
Jun 24, 2013
543
0
0
Visit site
Re:

Something fishy said:
Since only Portugese and Galician riders are shining, it would be no harm to classify this race as 2.NC / 2.NE or 2.2, merely to exclude these unmotivated and untalented foreign riders.

I assumed you were trolling because of this sentence. You're trying to tell me that none of the riders from outside Portugal & Galicia are motivated nor talented, which I am certain is a lie. Maybe they're not climbing talents, that's true. Still, looking at the climbing times this year compared to years when very fishy guys won (spoiler: this year is faster than in the beginning of this century) it might not only be the fault of their lack of talent in the mountains. (That is clinic talk though so I'll shut up about it now)
 
Re:

Parrulo said:
1st Veloso
2nd Gonçalves
3rd Reis
...
5th Rui Sousa ahead of Marque. . . .

Did Joni drop out of the Podium?

That'd be the stage results.

CL5mMrJWgAA-rkW.jpg:medium
 
Re: Re:

BigMac said:
Parrulo said:
1st Veloso
2nd Gonçalves
3rd Reis
...
5th Rui Sousa ahead of Marque. . . .

Did Joni drop out of the Podium?

That'd be the stage results.

CL5mMrJWgAA-rkW.jpg:medium


I know, but he wasn't in the top 10 of the stage and with Marque and Sousa inside the top 7 he could have dropped out of the podium

9ª etapa:
1 VELOSO Gustavo W52 0:40:41
2 GONÇALVES José CJR a 26
3 REIS Rafael TAV a 35
4 MESTRE Ricardo TAV a 50
5 SOUSA Rui RPB a 56
6 SHALUNOV Evgeny LOK a 57
7 MARQUE Alejandro EFP a 1:00
8 BILLE Gaetan WIL a 1:03
9 TORRES Albert ECU a 1:10
10 WESTMATTELMANN Daniel TKG a 1:21
11 BRANDÃO Jóni EFP a 1:24
12 CLAEYS Dimitri WIL a 1:27
13 SOUSA Sergio LAA m.t.
14 VILELA Ricardo CJR a 1:28
15 BROCO Hernani LAA a 1:31

General:
1 VELOSO Gustavo W52 36:27:03
2 BRANDÃO Jóni EFP a 2:21
3 MARQUE Alejandro EFP a 2:28
4 FERNANDEZ Delio W52 a 3:06
5 SOUSA Rui RPB a 3:07
6 CARVALHO António W52 a 3:29
7 SOUSA Sergio LAA a 3:54
8 BROCO Hernani LAA a 4:34
9 SILVA Daniel RPB a 4:41
10 ANTUNES Amaro LAA a 5:36
11 GARCIA Marcos LRJ a 6:10
12 SANTOS Virgilio RPB a 7:48
13 ALARCON Raul W52 a 8:28
14 BENTA João LRJ a 9:17
15 FIGUEIREDO Federico RPB a 10:00
 
Malucelli and Viganò with the 1-2 for IDEA in the final stage. Doesn't look like any changes of any interest in the GC, as expected with the final stage flat parade (which as you all know, I hate in all races but GTs). Not the best edition we've ever seen, César was for some reason doing a Wiggins and trying to lead the sprint all the way to 200m from the line, but was taken over by a Team Ecuador rider at around 350 to go. César like last year took the camisola amarela on the first uphill finish and in reality never looked like losing it; W52 had an iron grip on the race even though for the first time in their existence they don't manage to put two riders on the podium (Marque 1st & César 2nd in 2013, César 1st & Fernández 3rd last year, but Délio can only manage 4th this year) thanks to Efapel trying to match their firepower.

Stage:
1 Matteo Malucelli (Team IDEA-2010 ASD) ITA 3'33'27
2 Davide Viganò (Team IDEA-2010 ASD) ITA +mt
3 Eduard Prades Reverler (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) ESP +mt
4 Manuel Cardoso (Team Tavira) POR +mt
5 Pedro Paulinho (LA-Antarte) POR +mt
6 Filipe Cardoso (Efapel-Glassdrive) POR +mt
7 Albert Torres Barcelo (Team Movistar Ecuador) ESP +mt
8 Vicente García de Mateos Rubio (Louletano-Ray Just Energy) ESP +mt
9 Samuel Caldeira (W52-Quinta da Lixa) POR +mt
10 Marco Tizza (Team IDEA-2010 ASD) ITA +mt

Edit: actually, Daniel Silva looks to have gone missing from the GC so not sure what's happened there. Antunes moves up to 9th and Marcos García to 10th. Possibly a transponder gone missing with a bike change so he should be rightfully reinstated to 9th, or has he actually DNFed or lost time and I've missed something? I was out yesterday...

Final provisional GC:
1 Gustavo César Veloso (W52-Quinta da Lixa) ESP 40'00'39
2 Joni Brandão (Efapel-Glassdrive) POR +2'12
3 Alejandro Marque Porto (Efapel-Glassdrive) ESP +2'19
4 Délio Fernández Cruz (W52-Quinta da Lixa) ESP +2'57
5 Rui Sousa (Radio Popular-Boavista) POR +2'58
6 António Carvalho (W52-Quinta da Lixa) POR +3'20
7 Sérgio Sousa (LA-Antarte) POR +3'45
8 Hernâni Brôco (LA-Antarte) POR +4'33
9 Amaro Antunes (LA-Antarte) POR +5'27
10 Marcos García Fernández (Louletano-Ray Just Energy) ESP +6'13
 
Kind of boring seeing the spanish riders taking the win with no contest every year and I really can't see it changing soon. No one TT's well enough to make the gaps on the climbs from he current portuguese youngsters.

I sincerely hope Figueiredo, Antunes, Carvalho and Brandão go abroad next season. Go to Skydive or whatever and ride a decent calendar.

Maybe next season guys like David Rodrigues, Nuno Bico and Joaquim Silva can step up...
 
Joni Brandão is WT quality. Since last year I've been saying he is the best Portuguese rider in the Portuguese scene. I think he lost a bit of his punch and sprint by taking the climbing approach since last year but the way he battled it out with Costa to the line in the Nats was impressive. One year ago on a Braga parcours he'd have beaten Costa.
 
What if Veloso would ride for a bigger Team next year? I dont know bis plans, but he could be a good domestique?

Maybe there wouldnt be enough time to ride Portugal. .. But it is only suggesting, I have no facts.
 
Banana_Joe said:
What if Veloso would ride for a bigger Team next year? I dont know bis plans, but he could be a good domestique?

Maybe there wouldnt be enough time to ride Portugal. .. But it is only suggesting, I have no facts.
Gustavo César is 35 though, and though he has a WT stage race (Catalunya '08) and a GT stage (Xorret del Catí '09) in his palmarès, can't really imagine people would choose him over some of the other engines in the race who are perhaps weaker but with much more left in the tank. Maybe if there was to be a new Spanish Pro Conti team or if the Alonso project was going to be more than just a pipe dream we could see him go somewhere, but I honestly doubt he goes anywhere at the top two levels. Only a couple of WT teams - Lampre and Movistar - and a few Pro Conti teams like Caja Rural seem to have much interest in milking the Portuguese domestic scene for talent and then they seem to be looking younger (plus Movistar got burnt with their handling of the Alejandro Marque signing in 2013 and riders may be wary of a repeat), especially now Ace is at Катюшa (when he was with Radioshack they paid attention to the scene, but since he's left less so; Катюша have their own feeders to fill their boots with prospects). César is friends with Vladimir Isaychev from their Xacobeo-Galicía days (Isaychev has long been based out of the region) though, which might constitute the only possible route back to the top for him...
 
Thank you for your detailed answer.

In some case you have to think what would be the best for a rider. Maybe for Veloso it's easier to be a star once a year than work for someone else as a domestique.
 

TRENDING THREADS