Luca Bagnara wins the stage and is the new race leader of the Volta a Portugal do Futuro
The second day of the Volta a Portugal do Futuro reached the Serra de Sao Macario in a short and explosive stage. The finish on a first category climb seemed ideal for the team. After a great battle to be in the front groups, Luca Bagnara arrived alone at the finish line achieving the victory and the leader’s jersey of the general classification.
The stage started with the different attacks to form the breakaway. During the first day the breakaway was 10 minutes ahead and the riders who rode there fought for the victory, so nobody wanted to miss it during the second day. After several attempts Gabriele Raccagni, Dario Giuliano and Luca Bagnara managed to break into a group of 16 riders.
After their attempt was neutralized, a new breakaway formed midway through the stage. Two riders chased by three more, who were joined by nine others, including Luca Bagnara and Antonio Gonzalez, led the race in the intermediate zone of the day where the terrain began to become more difficult. The bunch was unable to control the 14 riders breakaway that reached the foot of the final climb with a one-minute lead. Bagnara attacked on the first ramps and went solo to the finish line. Antonio González arrived the finish line in a chasing group in 4th position.
Bagnara took the victory at the top of the Serra de Sao Macario and the yellow jersey as the new leader of the race. In addition, the team took the squad victory and Bagnara himself took the leader’s jersey in the mountains classification as well.
Rafael Diaz sports director of the team, was satisfied with the performance of his riders after the second stage: “the start of the stage was complicated with a crash involving Alex García and Antonio González. They were chasing for about 20 kilometres until they were able to return to the pack. After entering, a few kilometres later, the uphill section and the attacks began. The good group was made with Antonio and Luca in it. They have been gaining time although the differences were not big. At the foot of the pass they were 1’20” ahead, but two riders attacked from the bunch and they were coming very strong, so I sent one of them on the attack. Luca did an exhibition, riding the whole climb alone. Tomorrow we’ll have to ride carefully and see how the riders who have fallen are doing. We’ll try to control the race in the remaining two days”.
“From the start we talked about Antonio, Dario and I being able to stay ahead because the final climb was very hard and the three of us were good to be able to fight for the overall. During the race towards the middle of the stage on a little climb, Antonio and I broke away in a group of a dozen riders. We started the climb with a minute and fifteen seconds and after the first kilometre we saw that people started attacking from behind and I decided to attack. I went alone and I thought I had to give everything to try to get the biggest possible advantage. I’m fine, the team is fine, all the team-mates are very strong and I’m sure that in these two days we can manage the fight for the general classification,” said Luca Bagnara after wearing the race leader’s jersey.
