The final stage, the mountain stage, the queen stage. 171 km with five categorised climbs, one of them a HC climb and two category 1 climbs to finish the stage. Everything has been leading up to this day. Let's find out who's the final winner!
Here we go. The first attack comes from Sequera and he is followed by Carapaz who is 8 minutes down in GC and might have freedom today.
The next move comes from Bagioli as Chhetri and Siskevicius also follow.
A third group going away from the peloton now with Pantano Gomez, Keinath, KOM leader Hayter, Fernandes, Bartl and Tesfaye Heyi.
It's a free for all today! Another group with Schir, Ndayisenga, Denifl, Pomoshnikov, Mannion and Meurisse.
Carapaz seems to be interested in the KOMs. He starts from the bottom with 0 pts, but there are loads of points available today and he grabs the first 6 as we see the many riders getting into the breakaway.
It was a huge hassle, but we have 26 riders in the breakaway and they already have more than 4 minutes over the peloton. Let's try to list all of them:
Siskevicius
Chhetri
Bartl
Pantano Gomez
Slagter
Valls
Carapaz
Pomoshnikov
Fernandes
Bagioli
Eenkhoorn
Uwizeyimana
Kolar
Sequera
Ndayisenga
Schir
Keinath
Eyob
Mannion
Reguigui
Hayter
Meurisse
Denifl
Munoz
Tesfaye Heyi
Grmay
Carapaz didn't position himself properly to contest the next KOM. Mannion took the 5 pts ahead of Hayter and Schir.
Back in the peloton we do see organisation from a number of teams of the big favourites. They want to keep that huge group under control and are doing so with a gap of only 2 minutes on this flat road before the real climbing begins.
We are on the early slopes of this mammoth 27 km HC climb. The peloton closed the gap a lot before the climb, but with mainly sprinter, rouleurs and classics riders doing the riding we see now that the breakaway is again slowly pulling away on the climb.
It's the end of the day for Hayter, Tesfaye Heyi with Bagioli is also starting to go backwards. Look up though and we see Carapaz, Munoz and Schir going forwards. Still 12 km to the top of the climb.
Riders are scattered all over this mountain. Keinath is a good climber that has been dropped and is moving closer to the peloton that has also been reduced to 71 riders now.
At the other end of the spectrum we see Carapaz still going strong. Schir is dropping back, but Munoz is staying on the wheel.
That didn't last long though as Carapaz is going solo now. Not sure this is a super long range attack with almost 70 km of the stage to go or is he simply wanting these HC points on this climb.
More riders dropped from the breakaway. We have Mannion and Fernandes in this group. Valls and Ndayisenga are ahead of them. Eyob and Bartl also drifting away from the group of pursuers.
Carapaz is a true King of the Mountains as he passes the HC climb. We see Denifl is making an effort to come across.
The next group is over a minute behind Carapaz with these riders:
The peloton goes over the climb in a group of 63 riders still. Yellow jersey Jensen is still here, but this group is a long way behind the leaders at the moment.
Carapaz and Denifl drop back into the group of 6 riders on the descent and they now start the next climb. The next two groups are 1'23'' and 2'42'' behind them.
We have a decent view of the current situation here. The front group of 8 riders are 1'20'' ahead of group 2 containing the dropped escapees, who look like they will soon be caught by the peloton that is only 37'' behind them. Further down the mountain we see riders that are just focused on finishing this stage.
2 km to the top of this climb. Meurisse accelerates at this point. Munoz and Eenkhoorn are trying to follow.
Again, not sure if this was a move to secure the KOM point or try to launch a stage winning attack. Anyways everyone is reconnecting at the top. The acceleration has opened up their gap over the peloton to over 2 minutes again.
Speaking of accelerations we have one from the peloton. It's Gidich!? Not who you would expect as he launches just before the top of this climb.
Well that was a peculiar and quite foolish move. Gidich isn't the world's best climber and the peloton still has 50+ riders. Getting away there wasn't going to happen.
The leaders start the final climb. 16 km of the stage remain, nearly all of it uphill. They have a 2'35'' gap over the peloton. Is that enough?
Munoz decides to up the pace early on. Grmay and Slagter have been hanging on the rear for a while. They can't follow this pace, 6 riders remain in contention.
A move in the peloton now as well. Carthy attacks with Olivier in his wheel. Wellens is chasing them down.
Olivier couldn't really keep up with Carthy, but Bennett feels like he can as he jumps ahead of him.
All credit to Jensen, but he's cracked now with over 10 km of the climb remaining. It was always going to happen, so now it's just damage control as to how many places he can save.
A couple more riders dropped. Gesink and Gidich further down this group could also be looking at big losses given the length of the climb remaining.
Meanwhile the group of favourites is back together as they absorb Grmay and Slagter into his group. 10 km to go, the 6 riders in front are still 1'57'' ahead.
Carthy goes again, but this time Wellens is on his wheel along with now virtual leader on the road Pluchkin. Carthy soon slows down and it's all back together again.
A new attack now from Bennett and Chiarello. Both riders might already virtually be in the top 10 with all the puncheurs falling away throughout the day. But that doesn't mean they're satisfied! But as the other moves so far, it doesn't get anywhere.
These accelerations have cut the breakaway's gap to 1 minute and as we head towards the last 5 km we see that Eenkhoorn has let go of the wheel. He won't be winning today.
Pluchkin is setting a pretty slow pace as the gap opens up again. Smart, because it suits him to give the bonus seconds to the breakaway. The others need to attack and Bennett does.
Bennett has a gap going into the final 3 km. He is further down in the GC so they are giving him some space.
The leaders are in the final kilometer and they will fight it out for the stage!
Carapaz has a gap over the others with 600 m to go.
Let's not over complicate this. He was the strongest man throughout the day and he can celebrate his stage win early. Richard Carapaz is the winner of the queen stage of the Volta a Portugal!
It's a slow motion finish for the others. They were all running on empty, but Denifl was able to finish 2nd. Meurisse excellent 3rd for a rider who isn't a pure climber today. 4th place by still young Munoz and 5th is Pomoshnikov.
Eenkhoorn just manages to hold off Bennett for 6th, who in the end gets only a very small gap to the other favourites. Pluchkin comes in 8th and secures his GC victory. No one really challenged him today which was disappointing from a neutrals point of view.
Jensen comes across the finish line in 49th place over 6 minutes behind the winner's time. That drops him down to 14th in GC and I would say he would be quite satisfied with that result.
So Aleksandr Pluchkin defends his overall victory from last season and wins the 2021 Volta a Portugal. He might be aging, but he still came into this race as the top favourite and delivered the victory in the end. Joining him on the podium are Ki Ho Choi in 2nd who had a very consistent race and Tim Wellens in 3rd, who also bagged a stage victory.
Bruno Borges is the points winner. Richard Carapaz's heroics today net him the KOM jersey and Yevgeniy Gidich is this year's best young rider.
I hope you enjoyed this year's Volta a Portugal. See you next year!
Volta a Portugal - Stage 9 
