Dutchman Theo Bos ((White Pro Cycling Team) won today's stage, Friday, the Volta ao Algarve by Bike, in the sprint, and became the new yellow jersey.
The second stage, a route starting and ending in Lagoa and a climb to Fóia, was very disputed, with the peloton remaining compact until the end and the escape attempts being cancelled. The best Portuguese was Bruno Sancho da Carmim-Tavira, who ended up in the front group.
In the overall standings, Dutchman Theo Bos overtook his teammate Paul Martens, who left for today's stage as leader, but only has a 4 second advantage over his teammate.
The former world champion on track, whose first victory on the road was achieved in Algarve, in the Opening Competition of 2009, did not give the slightest chance to the competition, finishing the trip in 4h50m15s, at an average of 40,310 km/h.
Italian Giacomo Nizzolo (RadioShack-Leopard) was second and Portuguese Bruno Sancho (Carmim-Tavira) closed the podium of the journey.
“My first road victory took place here in the Algarve, in the Opening Test, which was my first race, despite the adaptation to the road being very hard, as at that time I was 15 minutes from the first ones. Today's stage was very tough. In the sprint, the Mark Cavendish had a fault in the chain. At that time, I caught the wheel from Giacomo Nizzolo and managed to win. It was a great feeling,” said Theo Bos.
The entire stage was disputed at a good pace, but the first kilometers were particularly fast, as a result of the peloton not having allowed any escape to be formed. The first group that managed to get away from the main column only managed to do so at kilometer 37 and was composed of ten units.
Dmitry Kozontchuk (Katusha), Sep Vanmarcke (Blanco), Ricardo Garcia (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Manuele Boaro (Saxo-Tinkoff), Bertjan Lindeman (Vacansoleil-DCM), Omar Fraile (Caja Rural), Dalivier Ospina (Colombia), Tomás Metcalfe (Carmim-Tavira), Hugo Sabido (LA Alumínios-Antarte) and Alejandro Marque (OFM-Quinta da Lixa) were the elements that animated the tirade, until the large group, led by Omega Pharma-Quick Step, decided to start the serious chase, which happened after passing in Fóia, when the difference was 8 minutes.
The work of the Belgian team allowed to cancel the escape 4,5 kilometers from the finish, but ended up not bringing any fruit to the formation of Mark Cavendish, due to the mechanical mishap of the Isle of Mann runner.
Better reward for the effort had the fugitives Manuele Boaro (Saxo-Tinkoff), new commander of the climbing table, and Hugo Sabido (LA Alumínios-Antarte), who rose to the top of the ranking of flying goals.
“Three years ago I managed to put on the mountain jersey in the Volta ao Algarve. Today, given the shooting already acquired by the WorldTour teams, the first place in the flying goals turns out to be a lesser evil. Tomorrow I will try to score in the first intermediate goal to hold the lead. In terms of the individual overall, it will be very difficult, due to today's effort”, predicts Hugo Sabido.
In the General Individual, the third place is Giacomo Nizzolo (RadioShack-Leopard), closely followed by two Portuguese, Tiago Machado (RadioShack-Leopard) and Hugo Sabido (LA Alumínios-Atarte). Bruno Sancho now occupies the 7th position overall.
In the remaining rankings, Theo Bos leads by points, Tiago Machado (RadioShack-Leopard) continues as the best Portuguese.
By teams, Blanco reinforced the first position today, being followed in general by Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise and UnitedHealthcare.
Today's stage started and ended in Lagoa, taking the athletes to cover a distance of 195 kilometers. The qualifying had a 3rd Category Mountain Award (Marmelette), a Meta Volante in the same location, a 2nd Category Mountain Award (Fóia) and a Meta Volante in Algoz.
Tomorrow's stage, with 193 kilometers, is scheduled to start at 11 am and will link Portimão to Alto do Malhão, with the goal coinciding with a second category mountain count, with a 10 percent average slope. It is considered the decisive stage of this Tour, in a more tailored shot for climbers.
Classifications
2nd Stage: Lagoa – Lagoa, 195 km
1st Theo Bos (Blanco), 4h50m15s (Average: 40, 310 km/h)
2nd Giacomo Nizzolo (RadioShack-Lepard), mt
3rd Bruno Sancho (Carmine-Tavira), mt
4th Jesús Herrada (Caja Rural), mt
5th Kris Boeckmans (Vacansoleil-DCM), mt
6th Thomas Leezer (Blanco), mt
7th Alessandro Bzzana (UnitedHealthcare), mt
8th Pieter Vanspeynrouck (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), mt
9th Edwin Avila (Colombia), mt
10. Michael Morkov (Saxo-Tinkoff), mt
General Individual
1st Theo Bos (Blanco), 9:57:30
2nd Paul Martens (Blanco), 4s
3rd Giacomo Nizzolo (RadioShack-Leopard), 8s
4th Tiago Machado (RadioShack-Leopard), mt
5th Hugo Sabido (LA Alumínios-Antarte), 9s
(...)
7th Bruno Sancho (Carmine-Tavira)
(...)
9th Sérgio Paulinho (Saxo-Tinkoff)
General by Teams
1st Blanco, 29:53:12
2nd Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise, mt
3rd UnitedHealthcare, mt
General by Points
1st Theo Bos (White), 41
2nd Giacomo Nizzolo (RadioShack-Leopard), 33
3rd Paul Martens (Blanco), 25
Mountain General
1st Manuele Boaro (Saxo-Tinkoff), 12
2th Alejandro Marque (OFM-Quinta da Lixa), 9
3rd Bertjan Lindeman (Vacansoleil-DCM), 6
General Flying Goals
1st Hugo Sabido (LA Alumínios-Antarte), 5
2nd Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), 5
3rd Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural), 3
Best Portuguese
1st Tiago Machado (RadioShack-Leopard)
2nd Hugo Sabido (LA Alumínios-Antarte)
3th Bruno Sancho (Carmine-Tavira)
Updated at 18:37 pm, with the placement of the photo of the winner of today's stage.
Updated at 18:57 pm with statements and more details of the stage
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