Andrea Guardini begins perfect day for Farnese Vini by taking Volta A Portugal Em Bicicleta 2011
Farnese Vini / Neri team’s Andrea Guardini took the mass sprint of the fifth stage of Volta a Portugal em Bicicleta 2011 on Tuesday, August 9. Sergio Miguel Vieira Ribeiro took overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The race started from the Oliveira do Hospital and ended in Viseu. The 22-year-old Italian cyclist showed a tremendous effort and covered the distance of 150.3 kilometres with the timing of 3 hours, 44 minutes and 2 seconds.
After winning the stage, Guardini said, "The Volta so far has been very hard for me, today though, the stage was a little easier, and it favoured the sprinters a little more. I just thought about hanging on and when we got to the finish I did a great sprint."
Recently, Guardini won the fifth stage of Tour of Langkawi and grabbed first spot in Tour of Qatar. He also took first and seventh stage of Tour of Turkey.
After a few kilometres to go, the three cyclists made a breakaway lead in the climb including, Javier Chacon (Andalucia Caja Granada), Oleg Chuzhda (Caja Rural) and Fabricio Ferrari (Caja Rural). All of them running jointly and gained a lead of few seconds
while Javier Chacon took the lead.
However, the three were caught by the peloton. In the final kilometres, Guardini and Ribeiro were working together for taking a lead but Guardini increased his pace and took a victory.
Sergio Miguel Vieira Ribeiro (Barbot – Efapel) won the overall standing with the timing of 2 hours, 3 minutes and 52 seconds. Hernani Broco was runner-up with 8 seconds and Ricardo Mestre was in third spot with 24 seconds behind Miguel.
Ribiero said, "I've been saying from the start that this team has only one aim and that is to win in Lisbon, We're going to try like we did today - everyday. I'm in yellow today but the team has plenty of options. We'll see what happens in the days ahead."
Garikoitz Bravo Oiarbide (Caja Rural) took the title of Best Young Rider ahead of Bruno Silva and Alferdo Balloni.
After one rest day the sixth stage will start in Aveiro and end in Castelo Branco. All the cyclists will cover the distance of 215.9 kilometres.
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