Jose Goncalves (Caja Rural) confirmed the good condition he has shown since the start of the Volta a Portugal when he powered clear to win the uphill sprint on the fifth stage of the race. The Spaniard held off the W52 duo of Delio Fernandez and race leader Gustavo Cesar Veloso who picked up a few bonus seconds that allowed him to extend his overall lead.

Since he finished fifth in the prologue, Jose Goncalves has been on fire in the Volta a Portugal where he has been in the top 7 in each stage until yesterday’s climbing got a bit too tough for him. However, he has always come up short, most notable in the hard uphill finish in stage 2 where he was second behind Delio Fernandez.

Today he had a perfect chance to get his revenge in stage 5 which had a very similar finale. The stage ended with a 3.3km climb that averaged 4.5% and so was the perfect scene for another big battle between the puncheurs. This time Goncalves made no mistake and Fernandez was not even close to coming around him, rolling across the line in second behind the ustoppable Caja Rural rider.

With 5km to go, it was still up in the air whether the peloton would be able to fight for the win as a strong break with Fabricio Ferrari (Caja Rural), Alberto Gallego (Radio Popular), Leonel Coutinho (LA Aluminios), Wouter Mol (De Rijke), Daniel Westmattelmann, Christopher Hatz (Kuota), Christophe Premont and Dimitri Claeys (Verandas Willems) still held an advantage of 45 seconds. In the peloton, it was Efapel that was chasing hard.

As the road started to rise slightly, the front group split up. Coutinho and Premont were the first to get dropped and later Mol and Westmattelman also had to surrender. Hatz fought hard to maintain contact but with 3km to go, only Ferrari, Claeys and Gallego were still left in the front group.

Tavira had taken over the pace-setting until a rider from LA Aluminios made an attack. Efapel reacted strongly and their big surge brought everything back together with 2km to go.

W52 now decided to go all in for Fernandez and race leader Gustavo Veloso and so they hit the front. They neutralized a first attack before a very strong Claeys went clear again.

The Belgian powered towards the finish line which forced Fernandez to start his sprint early. The Spaniard managed to catch the fading Verandas rider but had no response when Goncalves came around to take the biggest win of his career.

Race lader Veloso again proved his strength by crossing the line in third to score four bonus seconds. As he also gained 2 seconds on Joni Brandao (Efapel) and 3 seconds on most of his rivals due to splits in the finale, he extended his lead over the captains of the rival teams. Hence, he now leads teammate Fernandez by 15 seconds as he goes into tomorrow’s sixth stage. It should give him a chance to recover as it is a flat course with no categorized climbs where the sprinters are expected to battle it out on the uphill finishing straight before Wednesday’s rest day.

One for the puncheurs

After yesterday’s tough mountain stage, there was no respite for the GC riders at the Volta a Portugal as stage 5 included another uphill finish. It brought the riders over 169.4km from Braga to Viana do Castelo (Santa Luzia) and included two smaller climbs in the first part before the riders got to completely flat roads for most of the day. However, the stage had a nasty sting in its tail as it ended at the top of a small category 3 climb where the puncheurs were expected to shine.

It was a cloudy but relatively hot day when the riders gathered in Braga for the start of the stage. There were no non-starters when they rolled out for their neutral ride.

A big group gets clear

The stage got off to a fast start with lots of attacks before 11 riders managed to separate themselves from the peloton after 11km of racing. Alberto Gallego, Nuno Bico (Radio Popular), Domingos Goncalves (Efapel), Leonel Coutinho (LA Aluminios), Henrique Casimiro (Tavira), Micael Isidoro (Louletano), Fabricio Ferrari (Caja Rural), Davide Vigano (Idea), Daniel Dominguez (Ecuador), Wouter Mol (Rijke) and Kai Reus (Verandas Willems) were given some leeway and had an advantage of 1.15 after 15km of racing.

Gallego beat Reus and Casimiro in the first KOM sprint at the 18.5km mark when the gap was 1.40 while Vigano accomplished his mission of scoring points for the points jersey when he beat Coutinho and Casimiro in the first intermediate sprint. At this point, the gap had gone out to 2.05.

W52 take control

Unsurprisingly, it was the W52 that had taken control of the peloton and they were unwilling to let the situation get out of control. After 50km of racing, they had only allowed the gap to go out to 3.05.

Gallego was again fastest in the second KOM sprint where he beat Isidoro, Ferrari and Bico in the battle for maximum points. At his point, the gap reached a maximum of 4 minutes as W52 started to stabilize the situation by keeping it between the 3- and 4-minute marks for most of the day.

The break splits up

Vigano beat Gallego and Isidoro in the second intermediate sprint at the 100km mark at a time when W52 had finally accelerated, bringing the gap down to 2.30. This made the escapees realize that they needed to split the group up and it was Gallego who finally got clear in a solo move.

Ferrari set off in pursuit while Mol was third on the road and Isidoro and Coutinho formed a third chase group. The rest of the original break splintered to pieces and were gradually getting caught by the peloton which was getting very nervous. Bico, Vigano and Goncalves were first to be reeled in while Dominguez and Reus were next.

Kuota on the attack

A crosswind section and showers was the perfect scene for Verandas Willems and De Rijke to go on the attack and they tried to split the field. They failed in their mission but as a consequence the gap was only 1.30 with 50km to go.

Two kilometres later Ferrari rejoined Gallego while the peloton calmed down a bit after W52 had responded strongly to several attacks. However the attacking started again when Westmattelman and Hatz took off and they quickly got a small advantage. A few more riders tried to bridge the gap but no one had any success.

The peloton gets nervous

The two Kuota riders picked up Casimiro, Isidoro, Coutinho and Mol and with 37km to go, they were just 50 seconds behind the leaders. The peloton was at 1.20 and it was W52 who kept the situation under control and brought back an attack from a Caja Rural rider.

Casimiro and Isidoro were dropped from the chase group which was 25 seconds behind with 30km to go. At this point, the peloton was at 50 second and it was still very nervous.

Verandas Willems take off

With 25km to go, the front duo decide to wait for their chasers at a point when the peloton had slowed down. This made room for Claeys and Prremont to go on the attack and they had reduced their deficit to 50 seconds as they entered the final 20km. At this point, the peloton was at 1.40 and led by W52.

While the gap went out to two minutes, the two Verandas riders joined the front group with 12km to go. At this point, the fight for position had intensified in the peloton where Efapel and LA Aluminios played prominent roles near the front.

Tavira and LA Aluminios started to chase and had reduced the gap to 1.35 with 10km to go. Later Efapel also joined forces with those two teams and so they had brought the gap down to 45 seconds when the road started to rise with 5km to go.