Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the shortest non-ITT stage of this year's Volta a Portugal. We may well have the shortest stage - but we'll have the longest climb to a hilltop finish line of the race.
But as we usually do, let's start - well, by the start. Today's race takes off in Macedo de Cavaleiros, which lies about 40km south-west of yesterday's arrival location, Bragança. The city has just about 6,500 inhabitants, and a history similar to many others in that region: Celts, Romans, Arabs, then reconquered by the Portuguese. Today, although the economy is dominated by the tertiary sector, there's still quite a lot of agriculture. In fact, the name seems to stem from the portugues term for Apple, maçã, as the town was well known for its apple orchards. The nearby nature reserve of Azibo, including an artificial dam, is a common place for leisure activities.
The race then leads from East to West in an almost straight line. As yesterday, the first 20 kilometers will be dowhnhill, which will surely make the race very fast. The riders then take a first uncategorized hill, before arriving at the intermediate sprint in Murça, after 50 kilometers.
From there, we directly head into the 3rd category climb up to Alto do Pópulo. After a short downhill, we have yet another - uncategorized - hill, before the longer descent to Vila Real, hosting the second intermediate sprint. Just a bit more than 50 kilometers will be remaining from there - more than half of them uphill!
First comes the category 2 climb up to Alto do Velão. This one is about 20 kilometers long, with the steepest slopes being about five kilometers into the climb. Only 36 kilometers remaining from the summit.
The dowhnhill's then interrupted by a false flat, before the riders arrive down in Mondim de Basto. The route will already be gently inclined when the last intermediate sprint will be taken just under the 10km banner.
The first category 1 climb of the race then officially starts a little later, and will lead the riders up to the Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Graça, where we have today's finish line. This is a church on top of the hill nearby Mondim de Basto.
Who will win on top of this final hill? Well, the bookies arent' really sure themselves. Their Top 3 are Bakelants, Skujins and Monsalve - two top puncheurs and one top climber. Next are Bobridge, Meintjes and Buchmann - again two puncheurs and a climber, although you can safely categorize the latter two as great hybrids. Preidler, Koretzky, Talansky and McCarthy get one star - two more top hybrids and two puncheurs. So they still weigh the strenght on the hills higher - none of the favorites has a Hill stat of less than 76 - but good climbing may still give you an advantage.
We'll see. What we can almost be certain of, is that Houle will lose his yellow jersey today. But... there's actually quite a lot of wind today, up to 30km/h. And while it'll come from the side during most of the stage, there will mainly be headwind on the final climb, which might lead to a passive race.
And yet another jersey is likely to change hands, as there are 16 KoM points on offer on the finish line. With the two other climbs, this makes a total of 32 points available - our current leader Vichot's got 18.
But now, let's get the race started, the riders are ready!
Right now, it's cloudy out there at the start line, but with all the wind we have, the weather could easily change either way.
You can already see the road descending, so we're expecting a fast start!
And indeed, right from the line, we have 4 men attacking. It takes until the first slightly uphill section for them to really break free, though. We have Lane, Koshevoy, former KoM leader Pszczolarski and Hibatullah.
But of course, it ain't over yet. The next foursome consists of Bayly, yesterday's winner Caruso, Biermans and fighting machine Stoltz.
KoM leader Vichot wants to get in that breakaway, too - understandibly, but the peloton won't let him go. So he just pushes hard to reel them in, as (too) many of those men ahead already have KoM points to their name.
But he soon runs out of gas, and Mancuso sets a more moderate pace in the pack.
It seems to be too moderate for Bratashcuk, who probably wants to improve on yesterday's lame breakaway performance. De Marchi, Gillett and Grossschartner try to get his wheel.
They didn't quite get it. Instead, it's Gebrezgabihier, 6th yesterday, who joins the Ukranian. Wahyudi tries his luck again and is accompanied by Sergis.
Mancuso has just caught Gillett - but is actually too fast for the peloton, so he takes the foot off the gas for a moment. The breakaway doesn't seem to be an option for him.
So it takes him some moments longer to catch Sergis and Wahyudi, but he still does it. Bratashcuk and Gebrezgabihier are between the front group - which consists of the first 8 attackers - and the peloton.
Is this guy serious? Skujins is listed among the stage's Top 3 favorites and still tries to get into the breakaway! Well, OK, that's some kind of strategy...
...and it's actually a strategy that seems to be working! The pack doesn't bother at all about his presence up front, and the gap quickly grows to more than two minutes now! It's a bit surprising, but our breakaway of the day is complete now!
Skujins is obviously the best puncheur in the group. Well, the bookies ranked him 2nd in the stage preview... Yet, if the mountain skills should come into play too much, he might struggle.
The same holds for Caruso, who's looking for back-to-back breakaway wins, Bratashcuk, and Gebrezgabihier.
The Bennelong duo of Bayly and Lane then are stronger climbers, but they're somewhat less punchy. Koshevoy should be the most balanced rider in this respect.
Pszczolarski will obviously try to gain back the KoM jersey - which could be hard given the competition! Let's just list the KoM points of the breakaway riders:
Pszczolarski
12
Caruso
8
Bayly
7
Stoltz
6
Given that neither Vichot nor Jaramillo have made it into the group, it's quite probable that we'll have a new KoM leader tonight.
A propos group: Whereas Stoltz will surely do some valuable work for Skujins on the flat-ish and downhill sections, I really wonder what Hibatullah and especially Biermans are doing here. Well, both maybe hoped for a teammate to join them - it wasn't to be.
Back in the peloton, which - as I already said - is already 2 minutes down, it's Habtom, Mancuso, Coutinho and Predatsch taking turns.
We said it - there's a lot of crosswind today, and it shows! This picture could be a good fit for every "How to do echelons" manual.
And it seems to be rather efficient, as the peloton is already 4 minutes behind. Given the length - or shortness - of the stage, it probably shouldn't grow much further - especially given the quality of some riders up front!
After a rather hectical first third of the stage, the riders reach the intermediate sprint in Murça. It's easily won by Caruso, who today is only the group's second best sprinter behind Pszczolarski. But the latter just takes 3rd.
1. Caruso - 6
2. Skujins - 4
3. Pszczolarski - 2
With these points, Caruso moves up to 2nd in the virtual points standings.
The peloton, now led by Hamza, has almost gained back a minute. 3'08" is the current deficit. And meanwhile, it's started raining.
Directly after the sprint, the riders start the first categorized climb of the day. It's not a long one, but with rather steep slopes in the first half not an easy one, either. The steadier second half should suit the less punchy riders better, though.
Guess what? For once, we can see Ackermann in the right place, right at the front of the peloton! He's actually setting an incredibly high pace, and the breakaway's advantage has dropped to 1'10"! Could this be Vichot's chance to save his KoM jersey?
Well, feeling the peloton breathing down their neck, the escapees accelerate on their part. It's Bayly trying to add some more points to his balance.
But as we've already seen plenty of times, an early attack rarely leads to the desired result. And so, it's a Popo4Ever rider getting maximum points - but it's the "wrong" one, if you want.
1. Bratashcuk - 6
2. Caruso - 4
3. Stoltz - 2
Caruso is now tied with Pszczolarski, and both trail Vichot by 6 points. 10 are at stake on the next categorized summit.
Ackermann still leads the peloton. The gap has slightly increased again, it's now 1'33". That's not going to be a piece of cake for the breakaway, for sure!
Well, we've talked a lot about Ackermann underperforming on the flat stages. But could someone explain me this??? Sauber have actually sent the whole team bar escapee Hibatullah back to help their sprinter Salleh! What's the sense of this, given that there are no more flat stages remaining? They brought some good puncheurs, well suited for breakaways, and they're wasting everyone for nothing useful at all. That probably explains why they got such a horrible team result on stage 2 - they must have tried the same...
They're already more than 2 minutes behind the pack. By the way, Vanoverschelde is with them, too; he must be glad about not having to take a single turn...
Caruso launched the sprint from the front - and takes the next 6 points with ease. He may actually have quite good chances of still being 2nd in the points standings tonight, given that he's more than 25 points ahead of all GC contenders now.
1. Caruso - 6
2. Stoltz - 4
3. Skujins - 2
More bad news for Salleh in the meantime, as he punctured later on... Murphy striking hard here.
Fernandes and Vogt are leading the chase, together with some Festina and T-Mobile riders. The breakaway was pushing harder on the downhill, so the gap is up to 2'15" again.
The pack's halfway up the climb, about to reach the flat section. We see one of the bookies' stage favorites - Koretzky - leading the chase now, so his team seems to estimate Bongiorno's chances higher.
With such a strong puncheur setting the pace, it's no surprise that the gap has dropped to just under a minute now!
Bad news for Le Roux, too, as he suffers a puncture just on this flat (and therefore fast) part of the climb.
At the summit, the sprint for 1st and 2nd is easily won by Caruso, whereas the remaining points are much more disputed:
This makes Caruso our new KoM leader, outscoring Vichot by 4 points! It will however be hard to add more points, given that the pack isn't too far away any more...
The breakaway has actually been reduced to 8 riders, as Pszczolarski, Hibatullah and Biermans weren't able to keep up. They cross the line 48" later.
The peloton took it easy on the last part of the climb and is 1'31" back, with Areruya leading them over the summit.
All stage favorites and GC contenders - including yellow jersey Houle - are still in the pack. However, some of them - notably including Houle and Bobridge - are dangerously close to the end of the long queue.
Laotian champion Destribois is leading the chase on the downhill, ahead of Preidler and Buchmann. They actually even get a gap, but aren't insisting. There are still more than 25 kilometers left - including a 5km false flat.
The breakaway can use the rather uncoordinated chase to bring the gap back to 2 minutes.
It's a full speed downhill, still under pouring rain. The leaders can already spot the combined 10km and intermediate sprint arc down in the valley, after having successfully resisted on the false flat. They're still 1'50" ahead, with 14km remaining. If it wasn't for the last 10 kilometers leading uphill, they could actually dream of the stage win...
And here's that final intermediate sprint, with the route already slightly ascending. Caruso's position wasn't great, so zero points for the Italian for once.
1. Stoltz - 6
2. Bratashcuk - 4
3. Skujins - 2
We can already say that Bratashcuk's performance is way better than yesterday, he's redeemed himself. Can he - or any of the other escapees - crown this stage with the win?
At least, the peloton isn't insisting too much on getting them back. They're still 2 minutes behind with 10 kilometers remaining.
Although the route has already been leading upwards for about 5km now, the categorized part of the final climb is "only" 7 kilometers long. With an average slope of 7.1%, it's however not an easy one. The hill slightly flattens out towards the top, so those who can't sprint well should attack before!
Just before the peloton reaches these final 7 kilometers, they are about to catch Hibatullah, Biermans and Pszczolarski.
We see a lot of GC and stage win contenders in the first third of the pack: Bakelants, Talansky, Konig, Kirsch, Monsalve, Bennett, Chiarello, Oomen, Padun, Ji, Bongiorno, Schelling, Carapaz, Meintjes, Buchmann, Preidler...
However, Bobridge is still towards the end of the pack, with Houle some more positions behind. They have to hope for a slow race if they don't want to lose contact soon!
As soon as the steeper slopes start, Stoltz attacks! He definitely has to hope for a rivalry between his companions to have even the slightest chance for the stage win - or does he just prepare the terrain for Skujins?
Koshevoy joins him, which must be bad news for the Luxembourger. And so he stops the attack, and the others get back to the front.
Destribois is leading the pack, where there are no signs of attacks yet. The speed isn't high, as there are still 117 riders in this main group. The gap is 2'12" - with just 5.7km remaining, the breakaway may even have a chance to win this!
As soon as I write this, the gap starts melting. Areruya pulls the peloton as the escapees reach the 5km mark, 1'48" ahead of the chasers. No further attacks here, it's a rather lame climb so far.
Yellow jersey Houle is really suffering now, getting closer and closer to the end of the pack. Bobridge is trying to make his way to the front; he's hidden by the fir tree.
The breakaway group, which you can see two serpentines above Houle, has 4.3km left - and the gap has come down to 1'14"! They better speed up if they can!
There are still no attacks from the peloton, but with a steady pace Destribois makes the breakaway's advantage drain away - under pouring rain, notably. Only 40 seconds left - when will we finally see some moves for the stage win?
Stoltz is the first of the 8 remaining escapees who has to let go. He'll be caught in no time.
What we see is KoM leader Vichot losing contact - and therefore definitely losing his jersey. Other names in this group include Carthy and Henao.
Bratashcuk tries to set a high pace - but all his breakaway companions still can keep up, and the pack gets closer and closer! Just 24 seconds of advantage with 2 kilometers left - at least it's the flatter parts coming now!
In the peloton, it's now Dall'Oste leading Oomen - are we finally about to see some action?
Yes, but in another sense. Houle has given it all he had - it just wasn't enough to keep up with the peloton. He will definitely lose his jersey after three days - except if the pace should again slow down for some reason.
By the way, Bobridge, who was near the yellow jersey for most of the ascent, is now just a few positions behind Bakelants - just in time, I'd say!
It's kind of a ridiculous race - absolutely no-one wants to make the first - and possibly losing - move!
But maybe the pace in the pack is just too high? They just reel in Gebrezgabihier right now, who is the next one who couldn't keep up - and is now definitely at high risk of losing the white jersey!
Only 1.3 kilometers remaining, and the gap is still 22 seconds! Koshevoy was the next who had to let go - you see him just being caught by Talansky on the left.
But just 300 meters later, under the red kite, the dream of the stage win is over. No-one even tried to attack from the breakaway - they probably just couldn't any more.
So it will probably be the big guns fighting for the stage win here - or will we get a surprise attack?
No, we don't. We won't get any attacks here, just a reduced bunch sprint. 41 riders are still in the peloton, and about 15-20 of them can still fight for today's win - that's definitely not how we imagined it to happen. But yeah, we said it before - the headwind up the final climb surely didn't favor attacks.
So let's focus on the sprint now. Here are the current positions:
Bennett
Meintjes
Kirsch
Padun
Talansky
Monsalve
Schelling
Bratashcuk
Ji
Tvetcov
Caruso
Oomen
Koretzky
Anuar Aziz
Bongiorno
Brenes
Bayly
Bakelants
Bobridge
Jaramillo
Konig
Dennis
Skujins
Lane
Augustyn
Chiarello
De Plus
700m to go - and all of the stage's top favorites aren't in the first positions!
With 500 meters to go, we likely have a group of 6 riders fighting for line honors:
Meintjes and Bennett are on par, with Kirsch, Padun and Talansky right behind. Monsalve is a bit further back and tries to squeeze through between Padun and Talansky.
Schelling and Tvetcov are a some meters further back, and Caruso will probably lose some more spots, having been in the breakaway all day long.
Bongiorno has now passed his leadout Koretzky and tries to bridge the gap.
We still have pretty much the same situation, but Bennett now has a slight edge over Meintjes, who in turn is just a few inches ahead of Kirsch, Padun and Talansky. Monsalve seems to have found the space he needs and is going strong, too!
Bakelants had an amazing acceleration and is now right behind Caruso - hopefully he'll find some place to overtake the Italian soon! But the latter actually seems even stronger than Tvetcov and Schelling - great stuff from him!
Bobridge seems to pay for his bad positioning before the final climb. Making his way up front probably cost too much - he doesn't seem to have much left. Bongiorno is somewhat in no man's land.
Woo-hoo, that's going to be a really close call! At least we get a tense sprint after a boring climb!
Kirsch has now taken the lead, a few inches ahead of Bennett. Meintjes, Padun, Monsalve and Talansky are pretty much on one line, but not at all far off the lead!
Caruso's really going strong for the second straight day, still keeping Schelling at bay. While Tvetcov is slightly fading, Bakelants is now trying to find his way around Caruso.
Further behind, Konig and a revived Skujins have passed Bobridge, whose dream of taking yellow today is washed away by the rain.
Let's actually quickly do the math to see who else could take yellow today. If he finally shouldn't get a time gap, Bobridge could still be the man. But that's unlikely. With a stage win, Talansky, Kirsch, Bongiorno, Konig, Schelling and Meintjes could take it, as the time gap between all of these is less than 12 seconds - the difference between 1st and 2nd. Monsalve could do so, too, if Talansky doesn't get 2nd. Many more scenarios are possible, but it's probable that one of these will receive the jersey from Houle tonight.
With a strong kick, Monsalve has now taken the lead from Kirsch, who seems to be out of steam!
Bennett, Meintjes, Padun and Talansky are close behind, though - and beware of Bakelants who's now gotten rid of Caruso and is quickly closing in! Schelling might be able to go stronger, too, but doesn't seem to be able to find a way through the first line.
Monsalve is still leading with just a few meters to go, while Kirsch is fighting for 2nd - probably against Bakelants, who's really the fastest on the road now, but might come a few meters late for overtaking Monsalve as well!
Bennett, Meintjes, Padun and Talansky still have about the same gap - but it doesn't seem as if they could find something to close it!
But - no, it's not Monsalve, it's Alex Kirsch who has the most energy left and takes the win up here in Senhora da Graça! And as said earlier, he'll take the yellow jersey, too - a great day for him and EA Vesuvio!
Yonathan Monsalve still secures 2nd, and he probably remains this race's top favorite. He probably just sprinted a tad too early - while Kirsch somehow got a second wind in the end.
The fight for 3rd is still very tense, and Bakelants now seems to have the edge over Talansky, Padun and Meintjes. Bennett has slightly faded and will probably take 7th.
It's indeed Jan Bakelants who takes the final spot on the podium! He's just inches ahead of Mark Padun, who was clearly the best young rider today - but he has to wait for Oomen to come in to see if he can make good these 40". All other riders are too far behind on this stage.
Andrew Talansky finishes 5th, Louis Meintjes 6th and George Bennett 7th, as predicted. Patrick Schelling never really was in contention and takes 8th place - 6 seconds behind the others.
Now that's a surprise! Toms Skujins fought all his way back to finally finish 9th, ahead of Damiano Caruso! Two breakaway riders fending off most of the peloton and getting a Top 10 finish - hats off! They lose 10 and 15 seconds respectively.
And here are positions 11 to 20:
11.
Francesco Bongiorno
+ 15"
12.
Serghei Tvetcov
+ 15"
13.
Jack Bobridge
+ 23"
14.
Laurens De Plus
+ 27"
15.
Leopold Konig
+ 27"
16.
Alexander Foliforov
+ 27"
17.
Daniel Alexander Jaramillo
+ 37"
18.
Oleksandr Prevar
+ 37"
19.
Gregory Brenes
+ 37"
20.
John-Lee Augustyn
+ 43"
The gaps aren't extremely large, given the passive ride up the final hill. In terms of suspense in the GC, this isnt' too bad, though. But we'll look at this when we're going to cheer our new yellow jersey! And that's going to be in just a few moments, so hang on...
Meanwhile, let's mention some of today's losers. The biggest disappointment is probably Preidler, who loses 1'27". Not much better is Chiarello, 57" back. Oomen and Ji are still some seconds further ahead, but they lose 43" - meaning Oomen comes short of taking the white jersey by a mere 3 seconds!
Carapaz (+ 1'36") didn't have his best day, either, while Sepulveda and Buchmann (both + 3'15", coming in together with Houle) can write off a good GC result. But they were probably designated to help their leaders, anyway.
And by the way, Salleh easily finished inside the time limit, as did every other rider, and he wasn't even last. Still, Sauber probably shouldn't have brought him...
But now, let's head over to the podium!
And here, we celebrate Alex Kirsch twice - first for his stage win, ahead of Yonathan Monsalve and Jan Bakelants, and then for the yellow jersey he takes over from Houle!
But as we said before, the margins in the GC remain slim. Yonathan Monsalve is 2nd, just 15 seconds down, while Andrew Talansky is just 18" behind - a stage win for either of both with Kirsch not getting a Top 3, and the jersey's gone!
Meintjes, Bobridge and Schelling are all within 30", too, and Bongiorno, Bennett, Konig and Tvetcov are all less than a minute away as well. We're set for a lot more interesting days - hopefully with some more attacks, though!
He may have lost the yellow jersey today, but Hugo Houle still keeps the green one!
However, Damiano Caruso has come quite close, being only 5 points down. Had he won that final intermediate sprint... Yannick Stoltz, another rider from today's breakaway, is 3rd, 12 points behind Houle.
At least, Damiano Caruso took over the KoM jersey today. He now leads with 22 points, just 4 points ahead of Arthur Vichot and Daniel Alexander Jaramillo, who are tied for 2nd. But the margins are really slim here, too, so we'll have some more good fights for this jersey!
As was already mentioned before, Mark Padun has taken the lead in the U25 standings by just 3" ahead of Sam Oomen! The latter has one big advantage, though: the final ITT. Padun will need to put in a lot more time in order to keep the jersey - but today was definitely a good day on the road to white!
Laurens De Plus is 3rd, and he actually wasn't that far away from taking the jersey, either - just 13" behind Padun. Let's see if the teammates Oomen and De Plus can crack the Ukranian and take 1-2 for Lierse - all others don't really seem to be in contention any more!
Finally, let's continue another tradition - we have a leader change in the team standings! Isostar - LimeBike were "only" the 4th team of the day, but it's enough to take the lead ahead of Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam who lost 4 seconds on them today...
Today's best team Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ is 3rd, only 19" back. But the first 6 teams are within 40 seconds, so anything can still happen!
So, what do we take from this stage? It surely wasn't as selective as expected, but the not too steep final climb along with the headwind might have been too much of a risk to attack. We had Skujins who dared to join the BotD - and he almost suceeded; it remains an open question what he could have achieved when staying in the pack. Let's just hope for him that his legs won't be too sore tomorrow.
And we still have many riders close together in the GC as we head towards mid-race. It's impossible to say yet who will win that one - that's how it should be!
Tomorrow, we'll have another hilltop finish, but with a much shorter ascent than today. Let's see if the strong climbers can take this one again, or if Bakelants et al. finally take advantage of their superior puncher capabilities. See you then!
Volta a Portugal 
