The first stage of this race is a short prologue of only 2 km around the streets of Castelo Branco
The major point of interest today is to see if anyone will be able to beat the overwhelming favouritism of Oz's duo of Ford and Rogers.
Carlos Verona is the first to take off and he sets the time of 2'56
Liewe Westra is the 1st sounding name to leave the start point. He comfortably beats Verona at 2'50
Manuel Lloret comes close but can't beat Westra losing 1'' more
Swedbank's Gustav Larsson takes provisional 3rd just fractions of a second slower than Lloret
And finally an Oz rider. It's Ford. Surprise surprise, it's first place for the australian, 3'' faster than Westra!
Kiril Yatsevich finishes with the same time as Lloret, slotting in front of him to take the 3rd best time at the moment
Time for Rogers. He's looking to best his team-mate's time secure a 1-2 for Oz. He succeeds in doubling Oz's lead to the other teams but he's 2'' slower than Ford!
Dmitri Grabovski takes the same time as Larsson, Lloret and Yatsevich but marginally slower than both
We've missed Koren's departure. The slovene has managed to slot in between his two team-mates to establish a possible 1-2-3!
British champ and Jaguar's leader Bibby is one of the last real challengeres to Oz's lead. The brit however takes the same time as Westra to finish 5th! The first of the GC contenders.
Úran did not make it into the top10 today. Anyway, I don't think he'll be too bothered to lose 1 second to Bibby
So triple victory for Oz Cycling who takes all the steps of the podium. That also gives Ford the right to wear the first yellow jersey
