The Volta a Portugal climbs to the Torre today. This is the stage that usually decides it
Stage four runs 154.6km from Figueiró dos Vinhos to Covilhã and finishes at the Alto da Torre, 1,993 metres up. It carries more total climbing than any other stage of the race, with roughly 1,500 metres of it on the final ascent alone.
Update: the stage has been run. Alexis Guérin attacked 15km from the top of the Torre, soloed to the win and took the yellow jersey. What follows is the preview published that morning.
Some stages add kilometres. This one adds gaps.
The 87th Volta a Portugal hits its first real mountain on Sunday: 154.6 kilometres from Figueiró dos Vinhos to Covilhã, finishing at the Alto da Torre. The peloton rolls out of Avenida Dr. Fernando Lacerda at 1.15pm and heads north through Pedrógão Grande and Castanheira de Pera before the Serra da Estrela does the rest. The summit is expected at around 4.57pm.
Why the Torre counts for more than any other climb here
There are roughly 1,500 metres of vertical gain on the closing ascent alone, and that is what makes stage four the biggest climbing day of the entire race. The finish line sits at 1,993 metres, the highest point in mainland Portugal. Nowhere else on this route can a rider lose so much time over so little road.
Which is why the same line gets repeated every August and keeps being true. The Volta tends to start here. The opening three days belonged to the sprinters and to the points classification; this one sorts the contenders from the riders who thought they were contenders.
What it means for the general classification
The race left Lisbon on 5 August and still has a long way to run before Porto, but anyone with designs on the overall win is out of road to wait. After the longest stage of this Volta, from Beja to Elvas, the Alentejo gives way to the mountains and the job changes completely. Surviving the heat in a bunched peloton is one thing. Holding a wheel at 1,800 metres is another.
Watch the time gaps closely tonight. On a climb like this, thirty seconds lost is rarely thirty seconds found later, and nothing left on the route offers a ramp with the same profile.
Watching it, in person or otherwise
Anyone heading up to see it should plan around closed roads and heavy traffic on the approach — the Torre is one of the busiest days of the year on the mountain. The full profile, the timing checks and the stage map are published on the official stage four page, and the Figueiró dos Vinhos start is listed on the council’s own events calendar.
If you are picking the race up late, the full stage-by-stage calendar through to Porto sets out what is left after the mountains.
By Vasco Almada
Image: Joseolgon / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
