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Volta a Portugal 2016 (2.1, 27.07./07.08.)

Page 8 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Welcome to the Volta, where team tactics are often as sensible as David Millar's fashion. From Efapel chasing a counterattack including two Efapels sitting on because of an Efapel rider up the road a few years ago to Alberto Gallego last year via anybody with reasonable climbing chops being asked to sacrifice their own goals for Horner at any point from about 2009 on, there's a long-standing tradition of ridiculous tactics.
 
Oh, he will attack. He's full of ganas, one can tell.

Anyway, tomorrow, for those less familiar with the Volta:

OIHjr48.jpg


SraGraca1.png
 
Don't forget Mondim! To me, this is the iconic moment of the Volta, when the riders arrive in Mondim and the first uphill ramps appear, and it feels like the whole city is there to watch. Very few other races, if any, at the .1 level can dream of this kind of crowd.

Volta4Etapa05.jpg
 
Mar 13, 2009
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Nice win for Clarke! He is such an interesting rider, consistently gets his 5-6 wins a year. Seems to have a good sense for breakaways too. I think Drapac really is the perfect team for him, with the perfect race calendar.
 
Sep 29, 2013
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It´s curious like a climb like Senhora d Graça with some steep gradients usually doesn´t make bigger diferences between the contenders.

Today i´m curious to see how José Gonçalves is taking this race...

Even if i like Rui Sousa a lot, i don´t think he can win this volta, and a top 5 should be good to him.
 
Dec 30, 2015
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filipepc said:
It´s curious like a climb like Senhora d Graça with some steep gradients usually doesn´t make bigger diferences between the contenders.
just like every climb in this year's Tour de France :rolleyes:

anyway, in Senhora da Graça nobody wins the Volta, but every year there are some contenders that definetly lose it
 
Aug 16, 2013
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Re:

Mayomaniac said:
I hope that João Gaspar can hang with the big boys.

I even think he can win. He looks so easy. Together with Rincon they can go full *** on the earlier slopes.
 
With no MTF in the Torre stage this year, contenders might be more intent on going hard on Monte Farinha this time though, like in 2008 when it came AFTER the Torre stage. As Jens says too, don't underestimate the Barragem do Alvão climb, if the pace is driven there things could get interesting, like in 2009 when the race-deciding move was made because all the big teams had riders they were content with up the road, and by the time it became clear Nuno Ribeiro and João Cabreira were the strongest, the gap was too big for Palmeiras (Tavira) to pull back, or 2010 when the penultimate climb was Campanhó, and a select break including Brôco and Rui Sousa gained about a minute on that climb and while they were pulled back it meant that they were suddenly up among the GC elites which hadn't been expected at that point.

We may get the typical recent years "brutal pace until the last couple of kilometres where the smallish gaps are opened" type of stage, as the last couple of kilometres are tough, but even so that would open up the possibility of some serious battling from distance in the Torre stage if riders they are afraid of in the chrono are too close for comfort or if W52 show any sign of weakness with the loss of César's right hand man.
 
Re:

Arredondo said:
So no live pictures until they resolved the transmission problems?

Chances are we will have no pictures at all. They were announcing it as ''due to technical problems today's stage of the Volta a Portugal cannot be broadcasted''.


Embarassing. Why can't they have a spare relay plane? This happened yesterday and we missed a big part of the race but the problem seemed to be minor. Now this happened. Unacceptable.
 
Yes, complete disaster. Yesterday there were problems with the plane too and it came back. I imagine that they ''applied some patches'' and put it back in the air, like it's the Portuguese norm. Then after the stage they didn't bother to look further into what the problem was and today it busted. Such amateurism.

Disgrace.
 
Sep 29, 2013
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Portuguese Public Service...

They put us all watching *** music during 2 hours every year before the race. It´s so stupid, so stupid :mad:

A guy wants to see cyclism and as to watch this type of show. And what kind of footage is this that they don´t have another way to show us the images... :mad:

I wonder if José Gonçalves is here to make a top ten or just to be part of... He his a big talent.