Francisco Peñuela (Rádio Popular) received stage 7 of the Volta a Portugal with a remaining burst of pace within the diminished bunch in Paredes. He held off Tiago Antunes (Efapel) and German Nicolás Tivani (Aviludo-Louletano-Loulé Cancelho), who rounded out the rostrum in second and third, respectively.
The battle for the race lead continued between the highest two riders, as yellow jersey Afonso Eulálio (ABTF Betão-Feirense) and second-overall Colin Stüssi (Team Vorarlberg) marked one another throughout the 160.4km hilly route, ending within the prime 10 throughout the end line.
Eulálio retained his 21-second lead over Stüssi, however third-placed Jon Agirre (Kern Pharma), dropped again within the powerful finale and moved to thirteenth, now 3:28 again. Mikel Bizkarra (Euskaltel-Euskadi) moved up one spot within the GC to take over third, 55 seconds again.
Moving previous the primary of three intermediate sprints on one other hilly day on the Volta a Portugal, 19 riders fashioned the primary breakaway and took a 30-second benefit 41km into the affairs.
Efapel Cycling put three riders within the early transfer whereas Burgos-BH, Illes Balears Arabay Cycling, and Aviludo-Louletano-Loulé Concelho every had two riders. The solely groups not current have been Vorarlberg, ABTF Betão-Feirense, Aviludo-Louletano-Loulé Cancelho and Petrolike.
The group superior throughout the primary of 4 categorized climbs however known as it a day on pushing the tempo with simply over 100km to go, conscious that the ultimate three climbs – Gandra (1.3km at 5.5%), Vandoma (2.4km at 8.8%) and Baltar (3.4km at 4.4%) – have been bunched collectively within the remaining 38km.
On the descent of the opening climb headed to the Douro river within the Porto district, Javier Ibañez (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Oscar Pelegrí (Burgos-BH) obtained into a range on the entrance and have been joined by Henrique Casimiro (Efapel Cycling), Leangel Rubén Linarez (Tavfer-Ovos Matinados-Mortágua), Miguel Valls (GI Group Holding-Simoldes-UDO) and Diogo Narciso (Credibom-LA Aumínios-Marcos Car).
Passing the half-way level of the stage, the time hole to the second breakaway light after which disappeared because the peloton set a fierce tempo for the ultimate 60km and plenty extra climbing.
Ensuing assaults couldn’t get away on the sequence of climbs. Stüssi tried a number of accelerations to distance Eulálio, however every strike was countered.
The relentless motion saved any solo attackers from breaking free and as soon as into the ultimate 11km, César Fonte helped ship his teammate Peñuela to the win.
Results
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