Gustavo Cesar Veloso (W52) took a hugely surprising victory in stage 6 of the Volta a Portugal on a day that was expected to give the sprinters a rare chance to shine. Jose Goncalves (Caja Rural) crossed the finish line first but was relegated for irregular sprinting, meaning that the race leader got the wint and extended his overall lead.

After two tough uphill finishes, race leader Gustavo Cesar Veloso went into today’s stage 6 of the Volta a Portugal hoping for an easy day ahead of tomorrow’s rest day. After all, the flat profile suggested that it would be a day for the sprinters.

However, the day ended in a completely different way as Veloso took the stage win on a day when he is unlikely to have expected it. With the uphill finishing straight being much harder than expected, he came out on top after yesterday’s stage winner Jose Goncalves had been relegated for irregular sprinting.

All was set for a bunch sprint with 5km to go when Veloso’s W52 team hit the front to keep the race leader safe. They responded strongly to attacks from an Efapel rider and Bruno Silba (LA Aluminios) with 3km to go and continued to ride on the front as they passed the flamme rouge.

W52 were unfazed by a late crash that split the field and made sure that Veloso was in a good position when the Tavira team did the lead-out for their sprinter Manuel Cardoso. However, the uphill finale had put everyone at their limit and so no one had any teammates at their disposal when Goncalves launched a strong attack.

The Caja Rural rider immediately got a big gap while Cardoso tried to sprint from behind. However, the finale was more suited to GC riders and it was Veloso who got closer when Goncalves started to tire.

Veloso was about to catch Goncalves just before the line when the Spaniard made a swerve that allowed him to cross the line in first position. He enjoyed the victory for some time before the commissaires informed him that he had been relegated for irregular sprinting. Instead, Veloso took the victory while Vicente Garcia (Louletano) was second and Veloso’s teammate Delio Fernandez third.

With the win, Veloso extended his lead over Fernandez to 21 seconds. He takes it into tomorrow’s rest day where he needs to recover as much as possible. Thursday is the day of the queen stage which ends at the top of the big Alto da Torre climb after an undulating first part that includes a category 4 hill and a category 2 climb.

A flat stage

After two consecutive uphill finishes, it was time for the sprinters to get back into action on stage 6 which brought the riders over 154.1km from Ovar to Oliveira de Azemeis. There were no categorized climbs on the mostly flat course and even though the 30.5km finishing circuit was slightly undulating, the flat terrain was expected to allow the fast riders to shine. However, an uphill finishing straight could be a challenge in the end.

It was another hot day when the riders gathered for the start of one of the rare sprint stages in the race but that didn’t dampen the attacking spirit. The race got off to a fast start with several attacks before a 6-rider group got clear as they approached the first intermediate sprint.

8 riders get clear

Filipe Cardoso (Efapel), Hector Benito (Caja Rural), Dennis Bakker (Parkhotel), Taco van der Hoorn (De Rijke), Stef Van Zummeren (Verandas Willems) and Antoliy Pakhtusov (ISD) were the riders on the attack and it was Cardoso who beat Pakhtusov and Benito in the sprint. At this point, the peloton was 35 seconds behind while Jordi Simon (Ecuador) and Coen Vermeltfoort (De Rijke) were chasing at 15 seconds.

The front group didn’t wait for the chasers who were still 20 seconds behind at the 24km mark but at this point the peloton had sat up and was distanced by 1.55. Finally, the junction was made and it was an 8-rider front group at the 28km mark.

Tavira take control

Tavira hit the front of the peloton and allowed the gap to reach 2.40 before they started their real chase. At the 40km mark, they had already brought the gap down to 1.20.

Idea joined forces with Idea and those two teams allowed the gap to reach 2.05 after 50km of racing. However, they quickly accelerated and for most of the day, the two squads worked together to keep the gap between 1.00 and 1.30.

The break splits up

The front group accelerated with 60km to go and managed to extend their advantage to 2.20 but the peloton reacted strongly by upping the pace. Meanwhile, van der Hoorn was dropped from the front group.

Cardoso beat Simon and Van Zummeren in the second intermediate sprint at a point when the gap was only 1.20 and as the front group had to ride hard, Bakker was the next to get dropped. Meanwhile, Idea had blown up and after Tavira had been doing the work alone for a while, it was Louletano that took control.

Simon takes off

With 40km to go, the gap was still 1.20 and Tavira and Louletano were now working well together. The latter team disappeared and so Tavira was left to do all the work as they entered the final 30km with a delay of 40 seconds.

Just before the passage of the finish line, Simon attacked to win the final intermediate sprint ahead of Cardoso and Vermeltfoort. Pakhtusov was dropped and Simon held a 22-second advantage over his four chasers with 27km to go at a point where he had extended his advantage over the peloton to 1.16.

A new break takes off

Cardoso dropped his companions and made it back to Simon with 18km to go. The rest of the early break was caught, with Vermeltfoort being the final riders to get reeled in.

The attacking started in the peloton when a Dimitri Claeys (Verandas Willems) took off. He was joined by Jetse Bol (De Rijke) and a Caja Rural rider and after the latter had been dropped, they caught the leaders with 13km to go.

More attacks

Tavira were still chasing hard and moments later they brought the quartet back. Cardoso tried again but it was all back together with 11km to go when a Lokosphinx rider made an unsuccessful move.

David de la Fuente (Efapel), Sandro Pinto (Louletano) and Antonio Molina (Caja Rural) were the next to attack and they had a 14-second advantage with 9km to go. Robbert de Greef (De Rijke) joined them but Tavira brought it back together with 7km to go. Moments later, W52 hit the front and it was Veloso who ended up taking a controversial win.