Volta a Portugal: the first big Test.

With some patience of Crashdan i could do a route map of the 3th stage.

Tomorrow is the first big test for the contenders. Will be 171km with 3 climbs, finish in "Torre" a mythical climb in Portugal, is like Galibrier or Alpe d’Huez in the Tour.This is the higher point in Portugal (islands not include), but the path of this year is new, never climbed a race until the top down this path. So will be strange for almost every riders, training is one thing, compete is other...

It begins in Idanha-a-Nova and will be a flat path of 71km before the first difficulty. In "Unhais da Serra" begins the 2th categorie climb with 20km.  The sprinters will loose the pace here.

via i38.tinypic.com

(Click in the pictures to enlarge)

More on the flip...

After that, a drop of slightly less than 20 km to a new rise.. This time a 1th categorie with 10km, with ramps of 10% in the beginning and in the end. Here the things will starting to warm up, last year was the LA MSS, but this year probably will be Benfica or even Saunier Duvall, that will do the work. Average gradient is 6,8%.

via s4.tinypic.com

Over 20 km flat and begins the final ascent up to 1993m altitude. The climb is steep in the beginning, after a little flat about 1-2km, then others ramps of 11%. After this flat is almost 20km always climbing. Average gradient is 5%. 

via i38.tinypic.com

One of the favourite in this stage is Eladio Jimenez, the last three stages that pass in "Serra da Estrela" (the final climb) Jimenez win. Tomorrow despite Mancebo (his teammate from Fercase and the likely leader), I think Jimenez will have "free" to go away, because winning in the Torre is a big objective for all teams.

Hector Guerra and Plaza will be marking each other, they are the best time trialist and I think neither of both will attack. Jose Azevedo and Candido Barbosa from Benfica will have to attack here if they want win the TdP, but the big question is, who is the leader of Benfica? Jose Azevedo returns to Portugal for win this race, a race that he did a lot but never wins, before Once he had always a bad day in "Serra da Estrela" stage. This year he he has not proved anything and has been very poor (another winner like Sastre?). Candido Barbosa is like Kirchen, he can sprint, he can do good ITT, but when came a high mountain he had very difficulties. Seems that Ruben Plaza will be the lider.

Guerra have Koldo Gil, another possible winner for tomorrow, and Nuno Ribeiro that can does well after is 28th place in Olympics. Guerra I think is better than Plaza in high mountains, he had great results this year (winner of Gp Lodio and Volta ao Alentejo, now he is in 4º on UCI Ranking). Plaza wins Valenciana and disappeared in the rest of the season .

I had big hopes for Tiago Machado, with 23 years old he is the leader of Madeinox-Boavista and the biggest promise of portuguese cycling. He is like Sergio Paulinho, excellent time-trialist (2th in nationals ITT, 2 seconds behind Paulinho), a rider very combative and good in the mountains. I thought he could win, but with the loose of yesterday (1min 26sec) he will know struggle for top10, like he said before the start of this race.

In American Beef, Jose Cobo Acebo seems that is in good shape and already said that wants to win this race. He will have to gain some time in this stage, if he climb like in the Tour... poor opponents.

David Blanco, David Bernabeu, Santi Perez, Hugo Sabido, Andrian Palomares can also make good performance tomorrow. And Daniel Martin, will he achieve?  He can take Orange jersey (best youngest) from Cozza, tomorrow…