Volta a Portugal turned on it's head - Senhora da Graça sees Abner Gonzalez win from the breakaway and Artem Nych take over yellow jersey

The Volta a Portugal entered the weekend of all decisions and that is exactly what happened today on the mythical Senhora da Graça climb. The race was completely turned on it's head. The breakaway assaulted the stage with Aber González taking the victory, Artem Nych taking over the yellow jersey whilst former leader Afonso Eulálio attacked the penultimate climb very hard and then cracked in the final one.

It was a hot day, with a lively start and countless escape attempts, but eventually a breakaway of 29 cyclists, including many important names in the fight for the general classification. They soon reached the Paredes intermediate sprint where the first man to pass was... exactly, German Tivani, the leader of the points classification, who would also be first in the penultimate climb of this edition of the Grandissima held in Amarante.

On the ascent to the top of the Marão, the gap between the escapees and the peloton remained the same, with Oscar Cabenãs collecting as many points as he could to help secure Luis Ángel Maté's lead. The climb to the top of the Velão kept things the same, with almost 5 minutes between the groups, and it was Efapel's Alexander Gregoriev who came first over the 4th category mountain pass. This was followed by a fast descent to begin the climb to the top of Barreiro. The real battles between the candidates for victory in the Tour are now expected to begin.

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At the front, Frederico Figueiredo is setting the pace in the escape group and in the peloton, the Spanish Kern Pharma and Burgos teams are bearing the brunt of the chase. Six kilometers from the top of Barreiro, Fred continues to dictate the pace in the escape group and the gap remains at 4:40m. Behind Diego Camargo, 4th overall, he's on the move, showing obvious signs of difficulty in keeping pace with the Spanish teams, whilst António Carvalho was dropped.

At 2.6 kilometers from the top of Barreiro, Frederico Figueiredo opened up and the LA Aluminios men took the lead. The yellow jersey group broke up completely and about 1 km from the mountain finish line, Afonso Eulálio attacked, Stussi didn't respond and the Portuguese rider gained a lead which, although not huge, forced the Swiss rider to spend extra energy chasing. At the top, Eulálio has a 10-second advantage over Stussi. The front group is losing ground and only has a 3:20 minutes lead. Now it's full speed ahead on a fast and technical descent to the last intermediate sprint of the Volta a Portugal, which is in Mondim de Basto.

At 20 km from the finish line, the front of the race has a 2:50m advantage over the yellow jersey group, which in turn has increased its lead over Colin Stussi's group to 58 seconds. At the finish line in Mondim de Basto, the front of the race has a lead of around 3 minutes over the yellow jersey group of Afonso Eulálio, who now only has around 20 seconds over Colin Stussi's group, thanks largely to the chasing work done by the Euskaltel Euskadi men.

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Before the start of the Monte Farinha climb, the groups of the race leader and the winner of last year's Tour came together. The gap to the front has grown to four minutes. Up ahead, Artem Nych breaks the escape group, reducing it to 7 men. Jesus del Pino is best overall, but is dropped. Nych attacks once, twice, three times... but his opponents hold his wheel. At the back, Eulálio makes an attack, but Stussi keeps a high pace and nullifies his attempt to escape. Eulálio then cracks and is dropped by several riders.

Three kilometers from the finish line, Artem Nych remains at the head of the group that will contest the stage and could probably give the race a new leader. Del Pino is almost a minute behind and the yellow jersey is 3:40 away. Colin Stussi attacked Eulálio, who was unable to respond. Going into the final kilometer, there are three men in contention for the stage: Nych, Abner Gonzalez and David Delgado. Delgado is the first to try but everyone else responds and he's also the first to give in, Nych and Abner will fight it out and 200 meters from the finish line Abner Gonzalez unleashes a deadly attack and goes on to win the stage, Efapel Cycling's first.

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