Alexander Serov (Rusvelo) made the second big finisseur coup of the week when he held off the sprinters in the first stage of thee Volta a Portugal today. At the end of a very long and slow day into a headwind, the Russian made a gutsy move in a roundabout inside the final kilometre and fast-finishing sprinters Maxime Daniel (Sojasun) and Manuel Cardoso (Caja Rural) ran out of space in their quest to catch back the Russian time trial specialist.

It is not often that a rider has success with a late attack inside the final kilometre in stages that are destined to end in a bunch sprint but two riders have managed to deny the sprinters during this week's racing. On Tuesday, Greg Van Avermaet did it on the first stage of the Tour of Utah and today Alexander Serov copied that performance in the first stage of the Volta a Portugal.

The Russian attacked in a roundabout inside the final kilometre at a time where the sprint teams had all run out of domestiques in the fierce headwind and so the sprinters themselves had to open their sprint from afar in an attempt to make the catch. Gerald Ciolek (MTN Qhubeka) was the first to put down the hammer but it was Maxime Daniel who had most power and rapidly approached the fading Russian.

However, the Sojasun sprinter just missed a few metres to overtake Serov while Manuel Cardoso made a fantastic sprint from behind to almost take the win. In the end, the Portuguese had to settle for third and so was denied a win on home soil that had been prepared by his team all day.

Christophe Pfingsten (Cycling Team De Rijke) finished safely in the bunch to defend his overall lead. He is equal on time with teammate Bas Stamsnijder as they head into a 187,9km stage 2 which has a short, sharp climb up to the finish in Viana do Castelo.

A long, slow stage

The 203,3km stage from Bombarral to Aveiro was completely flat and had bunch sprint written all over it. As the peloton also faced a fierce headwind all day, it was no wonder that few riders believed in the chances of a successful breakaway.

The stage was characterized by a two-rider move consisting of Adrian Lopez (Radio Popular) and Walter Da Silva (Banco Bic) who were allowed to build up a gap of more than 11 minutes. Early on, Cardoso and Ciolek showed their intentions as they asked their teammates to gradually bring back the break.

Da Silva is caught

Inside the final 100km, the two leaders were fading and the gap now came down quickly. With 60km to go, they were only 2.38 ahead and the break appeared destined for failure. That prompted Lopez to make an attack and he left Da Silva behind, the Angola rider quickly falling back into the peloton.

As soon as Da Silva was caught, his teammate Tomas Swift-Metcalfe attacked and with 32km to go, he had bridged across to Lopez to form a new lead duo. Behind, a French alliance had formed as Sojasun and Bretagne tried to attack into a section of crosswind but no one fell off the pace and so Caja Rural once again took control of the peloton.

Swift becomes the lone leader

With 31km to go, Swift attacked his companion who was quickly swallowed up by the peloton which was now led by Caja Rural and the De Rijke team of race leader Pfingsten. 13km further up the road, the Brit was also brought back and so it was back together with less than 20km to go.

The teams had now gathered their troops near the front as the local Portuguese teams had no taken control. With plenty of fresh riders in the peloton, the counterattacks were, however, inevitable and the first one was launched by a Rusvelo rider with 11km to go.

Bideau and Oyarzun with a promising move

Jean-Marc Bideau (Bretagne) and Carlos Oyarzun (Louletano) had more success and those two riders were in the lead when they crossed the finish line to start the final 8km finishing circuit. Those two were chased by Manuele Fedi (Ceramica Flaminia) and a De Rijke rider but the Efapel team - the biggest Portuguese continental squad - brought it back together.

With 4km to go, MTN-Qhubeka tried to string things out but they were unable to prevent a number of counterattacks from local Portuguese riders. It was the UnitedHealthCare team of sprinter Jacobe Keogh that brought everything back together and as they passed the flamme rouge, it appeared as though the American team had everything under control.

That ended up not being the case as they had no riders left when Serov made his move in the final roundabout. Instead, it was left to the sprinters to bring the Russian back but they had no success and instead Rusvelo took their first season win outside the former Soviet Union.

Result:

1. Alexander Serov 5.58.20

2. Maxime Daniel

3. Manuel Cardoso

4. Gerald Ciolek

5. Fabio Silvestre

6. Jacob Keough

7. Andrea Piechele

8. Cesar Fonte

9. Marco Benfatto

10. Reto Hollenstein

General classification:

1. Christoph Pfingsten 6.04.59

2. Bas Stamsnijder

3. Fabio Silvestre +0.02

4. Sean De Bie

5. Yannick Talabardon +0.03

6. Fabrice Jeandesboz

7. Jean-Lou Paiani

8. Alexander Serov +0.06

9. Pavel Kochetkov

10. Sergey Klimov

Points classification:

1. Alexander Serov 25

2. Maxime Daniel 20

3. Manuel Cardoso 18

4. Gerald Ciolek 13

5. Fabio Silvestre 10

Mountains classification:

1. Abdraimzhan Ishanov 2

2. Micael Isidoro 1

Youth classification:

1. Fabio Silvestre

2. Sean De Bie

3. Patrick Schelling

Teams classification:

1. Cycling Team de Rijke-Shanks 18.01.39

2. Leopard -Trek +0.02

3. Sojasun +0.03

4. Rusvelo +0.06

5. MTN-Qhubeka +0.07