We're heading for Portugal, where the NCs will be held around (and up) Alto de Malhao - featuring a hilly road race with a hilltop-finish. No question, it's a perfect profile for the puncheurs to shine.
Two local teams (Prio, Karcher) will again hope for some success on home soil, with Prio as the strongest team (16 riders/2 teams).
Prio went for an A-squad led by Machado and Rui Costa, which has the pressure to control the race. Mendes (Bank of Ireland), Rodrigues (Siam), Paulinho (Bonsucro) or Silva (Karcher) as possible threats.
Will Prio bounce back from last year's fail to catch the breakaway, which was won by Antunes (Adira/Karcher) then?
Both Prio and Karcher featured in the early break - though it's worth a mention, that it's Prio's B-squad joining the breakaway:
Prio's A-team shows interest in catching the break, while the gap is at 1'50" halfway through the race with 28km remaining.
First attack out of this bunch now:
Fonte (Nutresa) tries to escape!
He's soon brought back by Prio, which - however - struggles in this final lap now: 12km to go and the peloton is 2'10" in arrears, despite the top-team still relaying at the front.
Will they fail like they did last season?
It's indeed possible, to say at least: 10km before finish, the bunch is still two minutes behind the leading group, which now goes into pieces with the first attacks occuring:
Silva counters a move from Brandao, while Cabreira - as the last remaining companion at their side - can't follow anymore!
It's a thrilling fight between the new leading duo, as Brandao now counters Silva just a few moments later!
They lead by still 2'10" on the bunch, where we finally see the big guns attacking - they definitely need to:
Machado
Mendes
Rui Costa
D Silva
on the move now, with Machado opening up a small gap quickly!
Still too late? Brandao holds on to a 39"-advantage over R Silva, who couldn't answer on this latest attack from Brandao.
Just 1.5km to go and Mendes/Machado appear to be the strongest top-favorites, dropping Rui Costa/Silva easily:
+ 1'35" for the duo at this point though...
Machado with another attempt to shake off Mendes, quickly catching up to R Silva, but still facing a 40"-gap on Brandao!
He's by far the strongest up the climb, but he might have went too late..
Yap, he did: Karcher does it again and manages to hold off the top-favorites for a surprising road champion. Brandao will follow into Antunes' footsteps!
Machado comes in 31" later as 2nd, while Mendes couldn't go past Rafael Silva eventually. Clearly a missed opportunity for Machado in particular. His team looked strong in the first half, but those 10km of struggling definitely cost him the victory. An earlier attack might have brought him this win, too..
Prio at least with the chance to repeat it's TT-glory from last year: defending champion Oliveira again amongst the favorites, such as his teammate Rui Costa and maybe Machado.
Top-favorite should be Goncalves (Swisscom) though.. so it's a tough challenge for the local team!
Machado with an early start, setting the time to beat today:
1h10'45" for a long lasting lead at the finish..
The three clear favorites with the three final starts, of course.
Rui Costa aiming for the win and crossing the half-time split with the same time as defending champion and teammate Oliveira:
11" faster than Machado with 24km remaining!
Goncalves as the one to spoil Prio's party in this timetrial?
7" faster than Costa/Oliveira for the best time halfway through the parcours!
This promises a close decision..
Final split and Oliveira/Costa still performing on the very very same level, crossing this intermediate again with the same advantage on Machado:
22" faster than their teammate..
Goncalves now entering the final 10km as well:
10" ahead of Prio's duo! Going strong towards a close victory?
But first: Rui Costa with the better end, beating the defending champion by just a second at the finish!
So far, so good: a 1-2-3-4 for Prio, but of course there's still someone out there..
..and it's the one, who takes the victory - leaving Prio without a portuguese NC this year:
Goncalves kept pacing and gained just a couple of seconds to finish 12" faster than Costa!
Portugal, where the NCs will be held around (and up) Alto de Malhao - featuring a hilly road race with a hilltop-finish. No question, it's a perfect profile for the puncheurs to shine.
