Stage one of the Volta runs Lourinhã to Queluz today, with a sting in the closing kilometres
153 kilometres finishing at the Queluz National Palace, with a category-three climb in Sintra near the line. Julius Johansen starts in yellow after Tuesday's Belém prologue.
If you live anywhere between Lourinhã and Queluz, today comes with a complication from midday onwards. Stage one of the 87th Volta a Portugal rolls out of Praça José Máximo da Costa in Lourinhã, with the real start at 13:40, and covers 153 kilometres to the Queluz National Palace in Sintra. The stage has since been run: Francisco Campos took the sprint in Queluz and yellow changed hands.
Wednesday’s prologue in Belém was six kilometres against the clock. Julius Johansen went round in 7 minutes 12 seconds and took the first yellow jersey of the race. Today is the first day the Volta behaves like a stage race.
The awkward finish
On paper, a flat day ending in a bunch sprint. In practice the terrain rolls enough to spoil a clean lead-out, and there is a category-three climb in Sintra a few kilometres from the line. It is not enough mountain to decide a Volta. It is exactly enough to sort out who has legs on a day when almost everyone still feels fresh.
If gaps appear, that is where. If they do not, the yellow jersey sleeps where it woke up.
If you are heading out
Traffic is the practical issue. The race convoy crosses several municipalities and the closures roll along with it. Sintra council has published the route and the road restrictions around the finish, which is where it gets tightest. Anyone driving to Queluz should arrive early, or park well back and walk the last stretch.
The race heads south from here and only turns for Porto in week two. The full stage calendar through to the finish is the quickest way to work out which day is worth standing at the roadside for.
By Vasco Almada
Image: Vitor Oliveira / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
