August 9, 2012 - Volta a Portugal Stage 6

Strangely, on such a good day for a breakaway, only one rider fancied it. The ever aggressive Daniel Teklehaimanot of GreenEdge was off up the road again. If he kept calm and maintained his focus, a stage win was surely on the cards.


The peloton were on a real go-slow day with Movistar and Endura keeping their leaders out of trouble at the front of the bunch. There was absolutely no pace and it felt a bit like the final stage of a Grand Tour, riders chatting to each other and generally having fun.


With ten kilometres to go, Teklehaimanot was still way out in front on his way to a great win. Behind, the peloton was really starting to crank up the pace and on this hot day, the bunch was getting strung out. Heat isn't really a problem for Eritreans!


With the bunch flying along, a Euskaltel rider was always likely to crash, and it was their leader Txurruka. He also brought down second placed Duarte. Despite only five people coming down, two of them were in the top five! A lot of other people were caught out by it and this group would not get back to the first peloton. Txurruka and Duarte would both lose places today.


Teklehaimanot was out on his own for 140km today and took a deserved solo win. Probably the biggest win for Eritrea in the history of cycling! Faiers got the jump on the peloton for second, whilst Downing got blocked and his leadout man Bibby finished ninth, with Russell nowhere.

August 10, 2012 - Volta a Portugal Stage 7

Today's breakaway originally consisted of nine riders, with a tenth that never made it across. Endura missed out on the break unfortunately. The weather had really turned today and the peloton were not enjoying the soaking conditions. Staying upright would be a challenge today, particularly on the fast descents.


Landbouwkrediet were doing the 'chasing' today although there was absolutely no speed in it. They were fancying another victory for Traksel but it wasn't long before they gave up the chase and accepted defeat. The peloton could now relax and save energy.


With 20km to go, the break was down to just four riders. They were Van Goolen (Accent Jobs), Bilbao (Euskaltel), Durbridge (GreenEdge) and the absolutely knackered Forero (Colombia). Soon Forero fell away as well, leaving it between the three to battle for the stage win.


And Durbridge just time trialled away from the other two to take a comfortable win by over a minute. He was the only one with the stamina needed today. Bilbao came second and van Goolen third. Forero incredibly lost over eight minutes in just twenty kilometres as his legs exploded.


Nine minutes after Durbridge, the peloton finished, led home by Moreno, who really showed his strength here by beating all the sprinters, including Downing who got sixth. Some of our riders were on their knees at the end of the day, including McEvoy and Bibby. A hard day.

August 11, 2012 - Volta a Portugal Stage 8

Yesterday's stage winner, Durbridge, who also won the prologue, had managed to recover from yesterday's long breakaway to put in a phenomenal time on the course of 52'19. This was way quicker than the early leader, Ludvigsson. Could anyone beat that?


Tom Dumoulin should have been Durbridge's nearest rival, and he was, but he was still a whole 22 seconds down on the Aussie. Durbridge would take his third stage win today.


As the GC contenders hit the course, Bibby was already out there suffering. A slow start preceded a faster end to his run and his time of 53'12 left him in with a shot of a top ten, but it would be close.


Iker Camano knew he had to give it everything today if he wants a top five and he was looking good as he went up one of the climbs near the end of the course. His time was superb and only Durbridge and Dumoulin could beat the Basque rider today. Third place, and he gained almost a minute on Txurruka.


The last challenger was Marzio Bruseghin and the Movistar man couldn't beat Camano, slotting in between Ovechkin and a very strong Faiers in fifth. Bibby ended up thirteenth, one place ahead of Partridge.

August 12, 2012 - Volta a Portugal Stage 9

It was the calm before the storm as the break of five went away. They were clearly up for some suffering today. Martinez, Andre Cardoso, Mironov, Fuchs and Rosendo were the riders.


On one of the toughest sections on today's stage, the peloton was already thinning out as Doi and Gutierrez put the pressure on. The day would be long and extremely hard for those getting dropped on the first climb, including McEvoy.


On the penultimate climb, Penhas Douradas, it was already over for Faiers and Fleeman, both dropped as the peloton shrunk to under twenty riders. The breakaway was holding firm, five minutes ahead, but the brutal Torre was still waiting.


On to the early slopes of the final climb, Txurruka was straight on the attack as we expected. De Maar and Deignan both followed but it was a very bad decision; Deignan completely exploded and flew out the back door, while De Maar got nowhere either. Attacking wasn't the way to go.


With ten kilometres still to go, and the climbing relentless, Camano and Bibby both went out the back together. However, the main group of favourites only contained nine riders now anyway. Everyone was on their last legs, but the climb just continued.


Duarte was the next to give it a go and this time, the attack was perfect. He pulled out a big gap and with just five kilometres to go, Moreno realised he'd lost it and immediately picked the pace up, causing yet more problems. Especially for Camano and Bibby, whose group had just caught back up.


But Duarte showed typical Colombian climbing ability as he soloed to a win by nearly a minute over Moreno. The rest of that group came in together a further half minute back, headed by Weening and Verdugo. Txurruka was also in there.


Camano and Bibby were virtually glued together on the whole climb and Bibby managed to outclimb the Spaniard, surprisingly. A much better performance from Ian. They came in 14th and 16th, with De Maar in between them. This meant Iker keeps fifth place. Just. Nearly an hour later, McEvoy crossed the line, dead on his feet, and outside the time limit, along with Kittel, Lancaster, van Dijk and Trussov.

August 13, 2012 - Volta a Portugal Stage 10

Again, with riders on their last legs, and with only 105 people still in the race, there weren't too many people on the attack. The break of the day contained seven riders including Ramirez Abeja, Daniel Mestre, Domagalski and Serov. They built up a maximum gap of eleven minutes on the peloton.


It was another relaxing ride in the sun for the peloton, with pretty much all of the teams taking a small turn on the front. Nobody was interested in the stage win or trying to gain time, although both De Maar and Ricardo Mestre did have a little dig near the end.


Back at the front, Burgos rider Efren Carazo was the first, and only, rider to put in an attack on the final categorised climb. He pulled out fifty seconds but could the group behind work together to bring him back?


No they couldn't, and Carazo took a huge win for the Burgos team with Domagalski winning the sprint for second ahead of Ramirez Abeja, Jones and Mestre.


Five minutes later, Weening won the sprint for eighth with Faiers yet again getting up there. Downing was again blocked further back, but it's not the end of the world. It's a shame Faiers has never really been given the chance, these stages have just been too hard for the young Brit.

August 14, 2012 - Volta a Portugal Stage 11