Today's Volta a Portugal time trial hides an 800-metre wall at 7.7%
Stage five is an individual time trial of roughly 17 kilometres from Anadia to Águeda, with a sharp climb at Barrô just before the first intermediate check. First rider off at 13:39, last one home around 17:16.
Seventeen kilometres sounds gentle until you look at the profile. Stage five of the Volta a Portugal runs today from Anadia to Águeda as an individual time trial, and buried in the middle of it is an 800-metre ramp at 7.7% through Barrô, arriving just before the first intermediate check at 9.5 kilometres.
That ramp is what turns a power exercise into a pacing problem. Go too hard in the opening kilometres and Barrô collects the debt; hold back too much and you reach Águeda with energy left and no road on which to spend it. On short time trials the mistake costs seconds that only a full breakaway wins back in the mountains.
Timings and where it runs
Riders set off from the national velodrome in Anadia, the first at 13:39, with start order reversed from the general classification. The last one should cross the line on Avenida 25 de Abril in Águeda at around 17:16. Central Águeda will be closed to traffic through the afternoon, and Águeda town council publishes the road closures and alternative routes.
The timing matters. This is the last real chance for time trial specialists to take time before the rest day and the northern stages, which is where this race usually breaks apart for good.
The yellow jersey changed shoulders on Sunday, when Alexis Guérin won on the Torre after a long breakaway and pushed Rui Oliveira out of the lead. Keeping it through a time trial is a different discipline altogether, and by late afternoon we will know whether it stays with him into the north.
The time trial has since been run: Johansen took the Anadia–Águeda stage and Guerin held yellow.
By Vasco Almada
Photo: _morgado / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) · file photo from the 2017 Volta a Portugal
