Candido Barbosa won the final stage of the Tour of Portugal into Lisboa today. Barbosa edged out Denys Kostyuk and Sergio Ribeiro in the bunch sprint, after five laps of six kilometers in the downtown circuit of the Portuguese capital. David Blanco took the overall title, 37 seconds ahead of David Bernabeu and 1'49 clear of Sergio Pardilla.
Julien Simon was the first rider across the line, but the race jury decided to relegate him for irregular sprinting, as he boxed in Barbosa on the left hand side of the road.
Stage by stage recap
The 5.5km prologue kicked things off in Viseu on August 4. Jimmy Engoulvent of the French Continental Saur-Sojasun team was the fastest rider in 6'25. He beat Vladimir Isaichev (Xacobeo Galicia), Alejandro Marque (Palmeiras Resort) and Patrik Sinkewitz (ISD Neri) by five seconds.
Stage one from Gouveia to Oliveira de Azeméis ended with a solo winner, when Russian Oleg Chuzdha (Caja Rural) held off the peloton by 1'24. The 188km long stage had one KOM halfway through, the 13km long climb up Caramulo. The win gave Chuzda the leader's jersey, 1'32 ahead of Candido Barbosa and 1'34 ahead of Sinkewitz.
In stage two over 152 kilometer from Aveiro to Santo Tirso, the race ended on the Monte da N. Sra. Assunção, after an already undulating terrain. Sergio Ribeiro (Barbot-Siper) took a close win, one second ahead of the Palmeiras Resort duo of David Blanco and Candido Barbosa. There were little gaps between small groups and individual riders, leaving only 33 riders to finish within one minute of Ribeiro. Chuzda barely hung on to his overall lead, with three seconds over Barbosa and five seconds over Blanco.
Stage three over 173km from Santo Tirso to Viana do Castelo should have been an uneventful bunch sprint, taken by Jimmy Casper of the Saur-Sojasun team. But Barbosa showed his worth, finishing second and receiving a six-second time bonus, which gave him the leader's jersey, now three seconds ahead of Chuzda. Barbosa's teammate Blanco stayed in third, now eight seconds behind the lead.
Stage four went from Barcelos to Sra. da Graça over 176km. It was another grueling mountain day, with David Blanco winning the stage and taking over the lead in the general classification. The top of the next to last climb, the Alto Campanhó, was 40km from the finish - and the finish was a mountain top as well, the Sra. da Graça.
Blanco was six seconds ahead of teammate Andre Cardoso and nine seconds ahead of Hernani Broco (La- Rota Dos Moveis). David Bernabeu (Barbot-Siper) finished fourth, 11 seconds behind. Blanco kept the overall, with Bernabeu moving into second place, a more decisive 43 seconds behind. Broco was a further second back in third place overall. Sinkewitz in fourth was the only rider still less than a minute behind, at 59 seconds.
The climbing didn't stop on stage five from Fafe to Lamego, over 172km. A small rise in the end was ranked a category two climb. But this time the favorites stayed together, allowing José Herrada his glory. He won the stage by 13 seconds over a group of almost 50 riders. There was no change in the overall.
Stage six was the longest stage for the riders at 221km bringing them from Moimenta da Beira to Castelo Branco. It finally was a day for a typical break, so eight riders went clear. Joaquin Ortega took a solo win in the end, 20 seconds ahead of José Mendes. The peloton was six and a half minutes slower, the overall again unchanged in the top positions.
Stage seven went from Idanha-a-Nova to Seia (Torre), over 168km. Ending a stage on a 30km ascent isn't everyone's idea of a mountain top finish, but Blanco used the climb up to Torre for another demonstration of his strength. He beat his close overall rival Broco by five seconds, with Sergio Pardilla (Carmiooro-NGC) in third, also five seconds back. Sinkewitz at seven seconds and Bernabeu at 11 seconds were close behind. Blanco confirmed his overall lead, now 53 seconds ahead of Broco, now the only rider within a minute. Bernabeu was at 1'04. Sinkewitz had dropped one place, behind Pardilla, but both being equal on time (1'16 behind Blanco).
Finally there were some flats in stage eight, from Oliveira Hospital to Oliveira do Bairro (170km). In fact, for almost 40km the stage was simply downhill. Ribeiro won the bunch sprint, ahead of Boy van Poppel (Rabobank Continental) and Juan José Lobato (Andalucia-Cajasur).
Stage nine was the individual time trial from Pedrógão to Leiria over 32.6km. Bernabeu used his time trialing abilities to win in a time of 37'45. But Blanco fought hard and came home in second, only 27 seconds later. Blanco kept his race lead by 37 seconds over Bernabeu. Only Broco paid in the race against the clock, losing 1'40 and dropping to fifth place overall, at 2'06. Pardilla was exactly a minute behind Blanco but more importantly seven seconds ahead of Sinkewitz. Pardilla moved to third overall, 1'49 back and Sinkewitz back to fourth, 1'56 behind.
The tenth stage from Sintra into the country's capital of Lisboa was then the typical celebration day. Only towards the end of the 154km race, when the 7km circuit (to be done five times) was reached, did the sprinters go to work.