Volta a Portugal 2022 (August 4-15)

[PhiLiz]

"Estrangeiros" completely crushed once again. Murguialday popped with 6km left. Hardest part still to come.

I think the only one left in the front is Pira who just attacked.

 

[PhiLiz]

Freddy Watts Figueiredo attacks but Maurício Merdeira is struggling. He'll stay with Tó Carvalho.

Huge surprise, looks like Maurício Merdeira has cracked.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Great day for Barry Miller in the estrangeiro category. No wonder they named the Tour of Utah after him.

 

[Elos Anjos]

I should have asked Frederico's family for a sticker when I had the chance

 

[Elos Anjos]

Very strange mountain top, clearly one cannot understand it by looking at the average gradient.

 

[PhiLiz]

Nice climb indeed. Very steep ramps.

Moreira cracked for a while but recovered quite a bit in the end thanks to the amazing work of Tó Carvalho. Figueiredo in yellow with 7 seconds over Moreira but unless there's a cataclysm at the Monte Farinha stage, the time trial should be too much for Figueiredo to hold onto yellow.

 

[Roku]

Glad for Frederico who is one of the very few riders on portuguese teams who has had somewhat of a believable career - if there is such thing in Portugal.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

A correction to my post above... Miller is 33 and with a doping suspension in his past. This should have been expected.

 

[PhiLiz]

Great day for Barry Miller in the estrangeiro category.

Your boy Murguialday had to hang on for dear life. 9th in GC with about 1m10s to Angel Sanchez and Henrique Casimiro. He better not have a bad day in the Monte Farinha stage otherwise his Top10 is in serious danger.

Glad for Frederico who is one of the very few riders on portuguese teams who has had somewhat of a believable career - if there is such thing in Portugal.

True, but... Inb4 6.8w/kg today or something stupid like that.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Your boy Murguialday had to hang on for dear life. 9th in GC with about 1m10s to Angel Sanchez and Henrique Casimiro. He better not have a bad day in the Monte Farinha stage otherwise his Top10 is in serious danger.


True, but... Inb4 6.8w/kg today or something stupid like that.

I don't think much can be done about Casimiro sadly, but Ángel Sánchez is probably a bit too young and raw for the Volta GC on a domestic team at only 29.

 

[PhiLiz]

I don't think much can be done about Casimiro sadly, but Ángel Sánchez is probably a bit too young and raw for the Volta GC on a domestic team at only 29.

He rides for Gustavo César Doposo and is complete trash outside of Portugal so you know he'll be a threat in the years to come but even this year I can see him cracking the top10. He does really well on hilly stages too so it's possible he'll try something in the Braga stage.

Murguialday will feel the pain.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Finally something that make sense. 72kg Moreira doesn't dominate a steep climb

 

[Mayomaniac]

Your boy Murguialday had to hang on for dear life. 9th in GC with about 1m10s to Angel Sanchez and Henrique Casimiro. He better not have a bad day in the Monte Farinha stage otherwise his Top10 is in serious danger.


True, but... Inb4 6.8w/kg today or something stupid like that.

He always does over the top wattages on the 2nd part of the Barreiro climb on the SnG stage (around 7.4 w/kg for over 6min with over 40kms to go 2 years ago) so yeah...
His performance on those gradients made him my pick for today, called it!
He won't get a better Volta route like this one (3 short punchy climbs in the final ITT and this climb as the 3rd mtf) for him it's probably now or never.

Nice to see signs for life from Pira. The team should send him to races like Sibiu and Langkawi where everything comes down to a big mtf and the tempo on the flat isn't too brutal. He started cycling late and had no experience racing in Europe before last summer, the guy needs time to adapt. Send him to those kind of races to gain experience and built confidence.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Finally something that make sense. 72kg Moreira doesn't dominate a steep climb

Has he slimmed down to 72kg? That would explain the wattages he posts on strava, for 76kg the w/kg would be too low for that kind of climbing performance...

 

[PhiLiz]

He always does over the top wattages on the 2nd part of the Barreiro climb on the SnG stage (around 7.4 w/kg for over 6min with over 40kms to go 2 years ago) so yeah...
His performance on those gradients made him my pick for today, called it!
He won't get a better Volta route like this one (3 short punchy climbs in the final ITT and this climb as the 3rd mtf) for him it's probably now or never.

Nice to see signs for life from Pira. The team should send him to races like Sibiu and Langkawi where everything comes down to a big mtf and the tempo on the flat isn't too brutal. He started cycling late and had no experience racing in Europe before last summer, the guy needs time to adapt. Send him to those kind of races to gain experience and built confidence.

I was actually joking about 6.8w/kg but I wasn't too far off, it's around 6.7w/kg.

So, an Evenepoel-tier performance at Stavsro back in May at Tour Of Norway. Sounds legit.

 

[Mayomaniac]

I was actually joking about 6.8w/kg but I wasn't too far off, it's around 6.7w/kg.

So, an Evenepoel-tier performance at Stavsro back in May at Tour Of Norway. Sounds legit.

Slightly better than Remco and in the extreme heat.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Has he slimmed down to 72kg? That would explain the wattages he posts on strava, for 76kg the w/kg would be too low for that kind of climbing performance...

You know more than me on that. I thought that was his reported weight but is 76kg. These weight are always a bit high though. And I'm no a w/kg nerd.

 

[PhiLiz]

Slightly better than Remco and in the extreme heat.

Here's a different calculation: https://twitter.com/NaichacaCycling/status/1557415421447397383?s=20&t=yOroXQ-a74CXV35Vd4rlRg

6.2w/kg instead of 6.7w/kg, which I calculated. If anyone knows the formula that MF Naichaca uses, it'd be nice to understand the difference.

EDIT - Figueiredo uploaded his data to Strava and from there you can see that the correct value is around 6.6w/kg , close to what I first calculated. 6.2w/kg is just wrong.

 

[Mayomaniac]

You know more than me on that. I thought that was his reported weight but is 76kg. These weight are always a bit high though. And I'm no a w/kg nerd.

Yeah, reported cycling weights are usually like the billed weight in pro wrestling, overblown.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

A good day for Uruguay even in the classification for riders outside of Portuguese teams, as 23yo Eric Fagundez who has been killing it on the Spanish amateur scene this season makes it a rare 2x Uruguayans in the top 15 of a European pro race, and 2 of the top 3 non-domestic team riders for the BAI-Sicasal team, a real step up from their baptism of fire in the Vuelta a Asturias. Miller and Fagundez are both mid-season pickups. Sadly for them in this overall classification, however, Miller lost 11 minutes, so around 8 to Murguialday, at Torre. The British riders who did well at Torre all suffered today.

1 Barry Miller (BAI-Sicasal-Petro de Luanda) USA 4'02'40
2 Yesid Pira (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) COL +1'09
3 Eric Fagundez (BAI-Sicasal-Petro de Luanda) URU +1'42
4 Jokin Murguialday (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) ESP +2'02
5 Txomin Juaristi (Euskaltel-Euskadi) ESP +2'38
6 Thomas Armstrong (Electro Hiper Europa-Caldas) GBR +2'58
7 Roberto Carlos González (Java-Kiwi Atlántico) PAN +2'58
8 Victor Langelotti (Burgos-BH) MON +3'49
9 Charles-Étienne Chrétien (Human Powered Health) CAN +4'33
10 Calum Johnston (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) GBR +5'44

GC
1 Jokin Murguialday (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) ESP 22'03'21
2 Yesid Pira (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) COL +2'56
3 Txomin Juaristi (Euskaltel-Euskadi) ESP +3'46
4 Barry Miller (BAI-Sicasal-Petro de Luanda) USA +6'54
5 Roberto Carlos González (Java-Kiwi Atlántico) PAN +7'43
6 Unai Cuadrado (Euskaltel-Euskadi) ESP +7'48
7 Calum Johnston (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) GBR +8'48
8 Thomas Armstrong (Electro Hiper Europa-Caldas) GBR +8'48
9 Victor Langelotti (Burgos-BH) MON +9'45
10 Xabier Isasa (Euskaltel-Euskadi) ESP +11'16

 

[Libertine Seguros]

A Euskaltel rider is attacking on the cobbles!!! I never thought I'd see the day!!!

Txomin Juaristi is achieving the impossible!!!

(He's actually countering Robin Carpenter's attack, but beggars can't be choosers in the circumstances)

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Scott McGill is pretty fast, at least at this level.

 

[PhiLiz]

McGill wins over Matias. No chance, just stronger.

Well deserved too, Wildlife controlled the breakaway perfectly. If it was up to the portuguese teams to control, this wouldn't have been a mass sprint.

Hilarious cameos by Moreira, working for this teammates Tó Carvalho and Fábio Costa (3rd and 5th). Reminder that Tó Carvalho is 4th in the GC and still has a reasonable chance to improve and make it an all Glassdrive podium.

 

[Potomac]

Goodman that McGill. It's all good.

 

[Mayomaniac]

McGill wins over Matias. No chance, just stronger.

Well deserved too, Wildlife controlled the breakaway perfectly. If it was up to the portuguese teams to control, this wouldn't have been a mass sprint.

Hilarious cameos by Moreira, working for this teammates Tó Carvalho and Fábio Costa (3rd and 5th). Reminder that Tó Carvalho is 4th in the GC and still has a reasonable chance to improve and make it an all Glassdrive podium.

Moreira already tried to help Carvalho win that other sprint stage where the later finished 4th. He sat up behind him to create a gap (that the others closed). Overall Mauri seems to be a team player who always praises his teammates and is actually happy for them. Clearly an improvement from the day when the team had Brandao, who only cares about himself.