Volta a Portugal restarted in Paredes a day after Finlay Tarling's death
Stage eight was neutralised into Fafe with no podium and no winner. Stage nine runs from Paredes to the top of Senhora da Graça, a climb the race takes twice on the same day.
The Volta a Portugal went back on the road this afternoon. The race rolled out of Paredes after a moment of tribute at the start line, and stage nine of the 87th edition is running as the route always had it.
For anyone picking the race up midway, the reason needs stating. On Friday, Finlay Tarling died during stage eight. The 19-year-old British rider, of NSN Development Team, was hit by a car that came onto the closed route in the opposite direction near Arcozelo, in Ponte de Lima, with a little over twenty kilometres left to the finish in Fafe.
What happened to stage eight
In a statement published the same day, the organisers confirmed the death and set out what followed. The race was neutralised all the way into Fafe, meaning the riders completed the route without racing and without valid times, and the podium ceremony scheduled for that evening did not take place. There is no stage winner on this year’s record.
Neutralising a stage is rare, and it is the obvious call precisely because there is no call to make: nobody sprints for a win a few kilometres from where a rider in the same bunch has died. The organisers and the Portuguese Cycling Federation sent condolences to Tarling’s family, his team and his friends.
What gets settled today
Stage nine links Paredes to Mondim de Basto and finishes at the top of Senhora da Graça, on the summit of Monte Farinha. It is the queen stage, and this year’s twist is that the climb is taken twice in a day — once by the Carvalhais side, around nine kilometres averaging close to seven per cent, then again to the line.
This is where the Volta almost always gets decided, and the race closes tomorrow with an individual time trial, where mountain gains usually survive but not always by enough. By early evening we will know who takes yellow into the final day. If you want the earlier chapters, the rest day between Santa Maria da Feira and Régua marked the halfway point.
By Vasco Almada
Image: CMMondim / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
