![]() If you've ever watched Portuguese cycling though, you'll know that it bears some strong resemblance to Spanish cycling in that even the stages designated as flat come with some challenges, usually in the form of hilltop towns and awkward repechos that mean that a pure flat sprinter is disadvantaged compared to a more all-round type. And the Volta a Portugal? It's the Tour de France of this universe.įor the first time in a while the race is covering all of the country including looping down to the south of the country despite the prologue being in Viseu this results in a pretty heavily backloaded route which is going to mean most of the big action comes in week two. ![]() ![]() It is following a few recent parcours trends - time trial mileage is reducing, and mountaintop finishes are increasing (and also the Unipuerto quota is increasing significantly too) - but the Volta is still in its own way a strange window in to cycling's past, of a provincial péloton who go hell for leather on home roads and ride at levels they never replicate elsewhere there is a separate universe where everything we think is true is exposed as a lie, the whole corporatisation of cycling never happened, there is no World Tour, no ProTeams, just whoever the hell is brave enough to turn up and get ground into mincemeat by the locals. but on the flip side, the Volta did give us its very own recreation of the Festina affair last year. Of course, some of the appeal of the Volta has been somewhat dampened by the fact that we are seeing something more of August in July these days you don't have to go to the Volta to see 90s wattages being put out anymore.
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