Prades continues Caja Rural success in Portugal

Eduard Prades continued the successful Volta a Portugal for Caja Rural when he won the bunch sprint on stage 8. The Spaniard managed to hold off Samuel Caldeira (W52) and Davide Vigano (Idea) on the uphill finishing straight while Gustavo Cesar Veloso (W52) defended the overall lead.

With a stage win and several top 10 results already in their pocket, Caja Rural have had a highly successful Volta a Portugal. Their stand-out performer has been Jose Goncalves but today it was another rider who continued their run of success on the Iberian island.

While Goncalves has been the man for the puncheur finales, Eduard Prades has been the protected sprinter in the flat finishes and so he was given his chance in today’s stage which was one of the rare chances for the fastest guys. He didn’t disappoint his teammates as he turned out to be the best in the sprint and secured the second win for the team

With Fabricio Ferrari in the early break, Caja Rural left it to Tavira to make sure that things came back together for a bunch sprint and all was set for a battle between the fast guys with 3km to go. Here W52 took over but it was LA Aluminios who completely dominated the finale when they hit the front with 2km to go.

The team rode strongly on the front and delivered their sprinter Manuel Antunes in the perfect position at 300m to go. However, he was no match to the faster riders when the sprint was launched and instead it was Prades, Samuel Caldeira and Davide Vigano who powered down the middle of the road to decide the stage.

Here Prades turned out to be the fastest and he had a clear winning margin when he crossed the line. Caldeira took second and Vigano third.

For the second time in this year’s race, leader Gustavo Cesar Veloso finished outside the top 3 as he crossed the line in 14th. However, that was enough to defend his overall lead and he now just faces one big test in his attempt to defend his title.

That test comes in tomorrow’s penultimate stage which is a 34.2km time trial. The course is almost completely flat and is suited to the strong specialist. It will decide the overall winner of the race on the eve of the final stage which should be for the sprinters.

One for the sprinters

After the queen stage, the sprinters were expected to be back in action in stage 8 which brought the riders over 180.2km from Guarda to Castelo Branco. The course was mainly descending or flat and as there was just a small category 3 climb at the midpoint, a bunch sprint was expected. However, the uphill finishing straight could potentially challenge the fast finishers.

It was another hot and sunny day in Portugal when the riders gathered for the start. All riders who finished yesterday’s stage were present when they headed out for their neutral ride.

Five riders get clear

As it is always the case in the Portuguese race, it took a long time for the early break to get formed as the start was again brutally fast. Team Tavira tried to keep things under control until they finally allowed five riders to get clear after 18km of racing.

Alberto Gallego (Radio Popular), Cesar Fonte (Radio Popular), David de la Fuente (Efapel), Fabricio Ferrari (Caja Rural) and Georg Loex (Stuttgart) were the riders that were allowed to get clear and it was Gallego who beat Ferrari and Fonte in the first intermediate sprint after 24.3km of racing. At this point, the gap was already 1.10.

Tavira in control

At the 38km mark, the gap had gone out to 1.45 but Tavira were not going to let this opportunity slip away. They took complete control of the peloton and made sure that the situation was kept under control.

At the end of the first hour, the riders had covered 49km and the gap was still only 1.35. Verandas Willems made a brief acceleration and brought the gap down to 1.15 before Tavira again took over.

The gap is stable

They slowed down a bit and allowed the gap to go out to 2.11 at the 75km mark. While Jordi Simon (Ecuador) abandoned, Tavira accelerated again and after 95km of fast racing, the gap was only 1.15. That allowed them to go slowly up the climb and when De La Fuente beat Gallego,Loex and Ferrari in the KOM sprint, the gap was again 1.50.

Tavira rode strongly on the front to keep the gap stable between 1.15 and 2.00 for a long time and they were not disturbed by a crash at the 120km mark. Moments later, Ferrari beat Loex and Fonte in the second intermediate sprint and at this point the gap was only 1.10.

De la Fuente attacks

The gap continued to hover between 1.00 and 2.00 while Tavira was left to do all the work. Meanwhile, Ferrari beat Fonte and Gallego in the final intermediate sprint with 30km to go.

It was now time for Tavira to accelerate and as they entered the final 17km, the gap was only 30 seconds. It stayed around that mark until de la Fuente decided to attack and while the rest of the group was caught, he managed to extend his gap to 30 seconds.

However, it was all in vain and with 7km to go, Tavira had brought it all back together. The team remained on the front until W52 took over in the finale but it was Prades who won the sprint.