After five days of suffering in the mountains, sprint talent Phil Bauhaus (Stölting) was back in the spotlight in the Volta a Portugal when he claimed his second stage win in the 10-stage race. Having positioned himself perfectly on Davide Vigano’s (Caja Rural) wheel, he easily passed his rivals sprinter to take the win while Gustavo Cesar Veloso (OFM) enjoyed an easy day in the saddle to retain his overall lead.

Last Thursday Phil Bauhaus showed the world that he is a force to be reckoned with in future bunch sprint when the 20-year-old beat all the best sprinters in the Vlta a Portugal to take the biggest win of his short career. Today he proved that the win was no fluke when he doubled the tally by winning stage 6.

This time Bauhaus had to overcome a tough climb at the midpoint of the race and this could potentially have taken the sting out of his legs. When it all came down to the expected bunch sprint, however, he positioned himself perfect on key rival Davide Vigano’s wheel and had no trouble passing the stage 2 winner to take the win.

The sixth stage of the race was a short affair that brought the riders over just 155km from Oliveira do Bairro to Viseu. After a flat start, the riders went up a big category 2 climb at the midpoint before descending down to a mostly flat run-in to the finish.

As one would expect in this kind of mixed stage, many riders were keen on riding aggressively and the start of the stage was pretty fast. First a six-rider group with Carlos Ribeiro (Portugal) and Salvador Guardiola (UKYO) got a gap but they were brought back after 10km of racing.

Banco BIC set a fast pace in the early part of the race but at the 18km mark, they let Nuno Matos (Radio Popular) take off. Guardiola, Ribeiro, Micael Isidoro (Louletano) and Luis Afonso (LA) bridged the gap and the five riders were allowed to build a gap.

A crash brought down Edgar Pinto (LA) who is one of the key GC riders in the race but he managed to rejoin the peloton. Meanwhile, the gap was constantly on the rise and when Afonso won the first intermediate sprint, the advantage was 4.44.

It even reached 5.22 after 50km of racing before Banco BIC initiated a chasse for their sprinter Mnauel Cardoso. As they went up the climb, the gap started to come down and when Matos beat Isidoro and Afonso in the sprint for the points, it was only 3.30. In the final part of the climb, LA had set up KOM leader Antonio Carvalho for the sprint for sixth and he easily took the final point on offer.

On the descent, Enrico Rossi (Christina Watches) took off and he managed to build a 30-second gap over the peloton. As the bunch was in full pursuit, however, it was a failed mission for the Italian who was brought back with 46km to go.

Isidoro won the second intermediate sprint while Banco BIC and Stölting were chasing hard in the peloton. Isidoro briefly lost contact with his companions due to a mechanical but he managed to rejoin the group.

With 35km to go, the attacking started when Guardiola launched a move at a time when the gap was 1.11. The group briefly split in two but came back together.

Instead, Ribeiro who has seemed to be in difficulty a little earlier launched a counterattack and only Afonso could match his speed. The latter quickly dropped his companion and pressed on alone.

Afonso won the final intermediate sprint while the second chase group was caught 20km from the line. Moments later, Ribeiro was back in the fold and with 16km to go, Afonso’s time as lone leader was over as Caja Rural was now also contributing to the pace-setting.

Race leader Gustavo Veloso’s OFM team hit the front and got a bit of help from Efapel. Those two teams set a hard pace until they passed the 5km to go mark when Stölting took over.

LA had a brief sprint on the front before a strong Caja Rural team hit the front. Unfortunately, they lost a rider who almost went down in a roundabout with 3km to go and so they were swamped by Stölting.

However, Caja Rural still had something in reserve and inside the final kilometre, they hit the front again. Luis Leon Sanchez and Francesco Lasca gave Vigano a perfect lead-out but Bauhaus had wisely made it onto the Italian’s wheel. From here, he launched a great sprint that allowed him to double his tally in the Portuguese race.

Veloso had an easy day in the saddle and retained his 29-second lead over Sanchez. Tomorrow the rider will take a well-earned rest day to prepare for Thursday’s traditional queen stage. Two big climbs precede the brutal Torre ascent which offers the climbers the final chance to gain time on their rivals ahead of Saturday’s time trial.