Manuel Cardoso will thank his Caja Rural teammates warmly tonight after the team did a fantastic job to reel in a very big and dangerous breakaway in today's fifth stage of the Volta a Portugal. With all set for a final bunch sprint, the Portuguese launched a powerful sprint on the uphill finishing straight to take a win on home soil while Sergio Pardilla (MTN-Qhubeka) survived a difficult day to defend his overall lead.

Manuel Cardoso was disappointed to not be selected for his Caja Rural team's Vuelta a Espana roster and today he made his point clear by winning the fifth stage of his big home race, the Volta a Portugal. Launching a devastating sprint, he opened up a big gap over his rivals in the final bunch sprint and no one was even close to the fast Portuguese sprinter.

To get the opportunity to sprint for the win, his team had to do a tremendous job to chase down a big breakaway. With a number of GC riders also in that move - among them 5th-placed Vladislav Gorbunov - the MTN-Qhubeka team of race leader Sergio Pardilla had also a clear interest in reeling it back in and so the two teams joined forces to neutralize the attack.

After a difficult day, Pardilla could roll across the line with the main peloton to defend his overall lead on the eve of tomorrow's rest day. Racing recommences on Wednesday with a mostly flat stage that could give Cardoso the chance to take back-to-back wins in his home tour.

An aggressive start

The fifth stage of the race had a bit of everything as the first part was quite hilly with numerous hard climbs while the last part was almost completely flat. As it has been the case in the first few stages, Portuguese champion Joni Brandao (Efapel) was extremely aggressive in the early part of the race and he joined forces with Bas Stamsnijder (Cycling Team De Rijke) and Daide Gabburo (Ceramica Flaminia) to form the day's first move.

They were reeled in a little later but Brandao refused to give up, this time going clear with Sebastien Duret (Bretagne). However, he was equally unsuccessful and the next few escape attempts were also neutralized by Caja Rural who had big plans for Cardoso today.

A first move

Finally, the right move went clear when Pedro Paulinho (LA Aluminios), Brandao, Ricardo Vilela (Efapel), Danny Summerhill (UnitedHealthCare), Jean-Lou Paiani (Sojasun), Pavel Kochetkov (Rusvelo), Jean-Marc Bideau (Bretagne) and Jesus Ezquerra (Leopard-Trek) attacked. Those 8 riders were allowed to build up a 3-minute gap when Efapel started to roll along on the front to stabilize the advantage.

After 45km, Vilela attacked while the peloton had now upped the pace. The chase group was quickly caught and after 61km of racing, it was all back together.

A new group is formed

On the day's first climb, Pedro Paulinho (LA Aluminos), KOM leader Marcio Barbosa (LA Aluminios) and Paiani attacked while Brandao and Sergio Sousa (Efapel) set off in pursuit. Brandao left his teammate behind and overtook Paulinho who was unable to match the speed in the front group before ultimately getting across to the leaders.

Paulinho got back on the descent from the second climb while Souse was caught by the peloton in which MTN-Qhubeka set a steady pace to keep the gap at around 3 minutes. However, Efapel had plans for today and so they launched Cesar Fonte up the road.

Big attack from LA Aluminios

Fonte joined the leader after a short chase while LA Aluminious made a big attack on the day's fourth and final climb. The team put no less than 5 of its 9 riders into a 14-rider group that got clear and with 2 riders already in the front group, the team had 7 riders up the road.

The chase group consisted of Antonio Carvalho, Bruno Silva, Edgar Pinto, Hugo Sancho, Rafael Silva (all LA Aluminios), Arkaitz Duran, Nuno Ribeiro (both Efapel), Rui Vinhas, Micael Isidoro (both Louletano), David Livramento (Banco Bic), Fabien Schmidt (Sojasun), Duret, Antonio Santoro (Ceramica Flaminia) and Gorbunov and Paulinho fell back to help the group get up to the leaders. Suddenly, a 19-rider group was ahead with a 1.33 gap over the peloton.

Teams start to chase

Behind, Caja Rural, MTN-Qhubeka and OFM joined forces in an attempt to reel in the group while LA really drove the pace in the front group. With Gorbunov in the move, it was a surprise to see the Efapel team of big race favourite Rui Sousa not do any work at all, instead asking teammate Brandao to do some work in the front group.

From then on  it was an exciting pursuit but as UnitedHealthCare also went to the front, the gap now started to come down. Sensing that it was all about to come back together, Schmidt and Duret attacked and the two Frenchman did a good job to keep the peloton at bay while their former companions were all caught.

All back together

A Louletano rider tried to bridge across but didn't manage it and instead it was Caja Rural, UnitedHealthCare and Ceramica Flaminia who did all the work to neutralize the attack with4km to go. From there, a Louletano, a Ceramica Flaminia, a Leopard-Trek and a Sojasun rider all tried to go clear but Bretagne and Caja Rural did a good job to keep it together for the sprint.

On the uphill finishing straight Cardoso launched a devastating acceleration and despite his best efforts, Delio Fernandez (OFM) was unable to stay in his wheel. He had to settle for second behind the home rider while Fabio Silvestre (Leopard-Trek) completed the podium.

Result:

1. Manuel Cardoso 4.20.47

2. Delio Fernandez

3. Fabio Silvestre

4. Sebastien Hinault

5. Andrea Piechele

6. Jonatahn Fumeaux

7. Armindo Fonseca

8. Jimmy Engoulvent

9. Eugenio Alafaci

10. Christoph Pfingsten

General classification

1. Sergio Pardilla 24.46.40

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. Delio Fernandez +0.30

8. Cesar Fonte +0.39

9. Daniel Silva +0.46

10. Edgar Pinto +0.47

Points classification:

1. Manuel Cardoso 60

2. Delio Fernandez 46

3. Edgar Pinto 44

4. Rui Sousa 41

5. Gustavo Cesar Veloso 27

Mountains classification:

1. Marcio Barbosa 51

Youth classification:

1. Vladislav Gorbunov

2. Rafael Silva

3. Jan Hirt

Teams classification:

1. Efapel 74.07.19

2. OFM +0.07

3. LA Aluminios +2.55

4. Radio Popular +3.41

5. Louletano +20.38