Raul Alarcon (Louletano) was the big winner when the Volta a Portugal headed back into the mountains on today's 7th stage. The Spaniard was the lone survivor of a big 17-rider break and held off the peloton to take a huge solo win while race leader Sergio Pardilla (MTN-Qhubeka) responded to all attacks from main rivals Rui Sousa (Efapel) and Edgar Pinto (LA Aluminious) to defend his leader's jersey.

Raul Alarcon took the biggest win of his career when he emerged as the strongest from a 17-rider breakaway in today's 7th stage of the Volta a Portugal. Leaving behind his companions on the first of two big climbs, he held off a determined chase from the OFM squad to take a fantastic solo victory on the first of two consecutive days in the mountains.

While Alarcon was fighting hard for his win in the front, the main GC riders tested each other on the steep slopes of the final climb but neither Rui Sousa nor Edgar Pinto were able to put race leader Sergio Pardilla in difficulty. The Spaniard responded comfortably to all attacks and instead the main riders decided to postpone their big battle for tomorrow.

They will find the perfect terrain for a fantastic spectacle as the 8th stage is the race's queen stage. A category 1 climb precede the traditional mountain top finish on top of the HC mountain Alto da Torre and Pardilla, Pinto and Sousa are expected to go head-to-head in a thrilling battle with just a time trial and a flat final stage still to come.

A big 17-rider group is formed

The 166,3km 7th stage was the first of two big days in the mountains. The first part mostly flat but two mighty mountains loomed in the second half. From the top of the final one, a long descent and short, sharp ramp up to the finish remained.

In the first part of the stage, the tactical battle was fierce as most of the big teams wanted to have a rider in the early breakaway. Hence, attacks went thick and fast in the early part of the race until the elastic finally snapped and 14 riders went up the road.

Filipe Cardoso (Efapel), Raul Mateos (Louletano), Jay Thomson (MTN-Qhubeka), Marc De Maar (UnitedHealthCare), Davide Frattini (UnitedHealthCare), Paul Poux (Sojasun), Fabien Schmidt (Sojasun), Patrick Schelling (IAM), Pavel Kochetkov (Rusvelo), Jean-Marc Bideau (Bretagne), Tom Thill (Leopard-Trek), Amaro Antunes (Ceramica Flaminia), Antonio Barbio (Ceramica Flaminia) and Huub Duyn (Cycling Team De Rijke) started to build up a gap while Raul Alarcon (Louletano), Renaud Dion (Bretagne) and Alfredo Balloni (Ceramica Flaminia) set off in pursuit. The three chasers had to fight hard for 10km to get across, ultimately forming a big 17-rider group.

MTN-Qhubeka in control

The gap grew quickly and reached its maximum of 6.57 minutes after 10,5km of racing. The early chase work was done by the MTN-Qhubeka team of race leader Pardilla but with no rider being any immediate threat to the yellow jersey, they were content to let the gap grow.

When the front group hit the first climb, it splintered to pieces. Schmidt, De Maar and Alarcon were stronger than the rest and got clear. As Alarcon set a furious pace, De Maar fell off the pace and left just two riders in the front group. With 56km to go, Alarcon sensed that Schmidt was on his limit and so he attacked his companion, cresting the summit as the lone leader.

Efapel splits the peloton

In the peloton, Efapel had big plans for their leader, race favourite Rui Sousa who started the day equal on time with Pardilla. From the bottom of the climb, they put Portuguese champion Joni Brandao on the front and he did a fantastic job to severely whittle down the size of the yellow jersey group which continued to pick up remnants from the early break.

With 58km to go, Efapel decided that it was time to change strategy and so they launched an attack with Nuno Ribeiro. The Portuguese was joined by Celio Sousa (Radio Popular) and those two immediately built up a big gap.

Hell breaks loose

With Efapel now having one of their main riders off the front, they stopped their chase effort and so the peloton slowed down. That meant that all hell broke loose with numerous riders trying to go off the front. One of those was KOM leader Marcio Barbosa (LA Aluminios) who bridged across to Ribeiro and Celio Sousa.

At one point, a very dangerous group containing among other 5th placed Vladislav Gorbunov (Astana) was ahead and no one indicated that they were willing to take responsibility for the chase. The organization of that group was, however, very bad and so it all came back together.

Efapel tries again

Efapel decided to put an end to the chaos and so they upped the pace with team Ricardo Vilela hitting the front hard. For a moment, Pardilla and previous race leader Marcel Wyss (IAM) appeared to be struggling but they got back on and remained in contention.

With 50km to go, Rui Sousa decided that it was time to test his rivals and so he launched an attack. Edgar Pinto (LA Alumininios) and Pardilla were quick to respond and so he decided to stop his effort. Instead, teammate Vilela countered and he was joined by Wyss in a move that was allowed to go clear.

OFM on the front

OFM now decided to take control and the yellow-black-white team assumed its position on the front, keeping a steady pace all the way to the top. Up ahead, Ribeiro, Sousa and Barbosa had caught and made use of Ribeiro's teammate Cardoso before leaving him behind a little later.

Mateos, Thomson, De Maar, Schmidt, Schelling, Bideau, Antunes, Balloni and Duijn had formed a big chase group behind Alarcon and as they got closer to the top, Barbosa made a big effort to get across to that big move. Hence, he was allowed to pass the KOM sprint in second position, thus strengthening his lead in the KOM competition.

A big chase group is formed

Ribeiro and Celio Sousa bridged across on the descent to form a 12-rider chase group at the bottom of the final climb. On the lower slopes, Ribeiro set a hard pace and thus blew the group to pieces. A few kilometres up the climb, only Barbosa, Celio Sousa and Balloni stayed in contact.

De Maar and Duijn managed to stay in contact with Wyss and Vilela when those two riders flew by. Those four riders made it back up to the Ribeiro group as they neared the top and so those 8 chasers crested the summit with a 3.20 gap to Alarcon.

The main riders attack each other

OFM continued to lead the peloton on the lower slopes of the climb but with 29km to go, LA Aluminios decided it was time to test their rivals. Edgar Pinto launched an attack but Pardilla and Rui Sousa were both quick to respond. The three main riders in the race all tested each other with small accelerations but as no one was able to break clear, they slowed down and allowed more riders to rejoin. Instead, OFM decided to once again take control and the Portuguese team led the main group all the way up the final part of the climb, cresting the summit with a time loss of 4.10 to Alarcon.

Alejandro Marque and Gustavo Cesar Veloso (OFM) led the peloton - now only consisting of those two riders, Pinto, Rui Sousa, Hernani Broco (Efapel), Rui Vinhas (Louletano), Mateos, Daniel Silva (Onda), Virgilio Santos (Onda), Pardilla,  Schelling, Gorbunov - down the descent and they made it across to the chasers. From there the stage evolved into a pursuit between Alarcon and the OFM-led peloton.

The main group constantly edged closer but Alarcon was strong enough to make it across the line 1.30 ahead of the peloton. Balloni tried to make a long sprint on the uphill finish to take 2nd but it was Pinto who emerged as the fastest while Celio Sousa took 3rd. Pardilla crossed the line in 7th to defend his leader's jersey on the eve of the queen stage.

Result:

1. Raul Alarcon 4.45.45

2. Edgar Pinto +1.30

3. Celio Sousa

4. Marcel Wyss

5. Gustavo Cesar Veloso

6. Rui Sousa

7. Sergio Pardilla

8. Hernani Broco

9. Vladislav Gorbunov

10. Daniel Silva

General classification

1. Sergio Pardilla 34.08.31

2. Rui Sousa

3. Gustavo Cesar Veloso +0.07

4. Hernani Broco +0.17

5. Vladislav Gorbunov +0.20

6. Alejandro Marque +0.24

7. Daniel Silva +0.46

8. Edgar Pinto +0.47

9. Marcel Wyss +0.50

10. Rui Vinhas +0.59