Sixteen hundredths of a second decided the sprint into Albufeira
Stage two of the Volta a Portugal, 180.4km from Sines to Albufeira, went to a photo finish. Santiago Mesa took it from Daniel Cavia; Rui Oliveira keeps the yellow jersey.
Sixteen hundredths of a second. That was the gap between Santiago Mesa and Daniel Cavia at the line in Albufeira, close enough that the judges went to the image before anyone could be called the winner of stage two of the Volta a Portugal.
It is the Colombian’s first stage win of this edition. The route ran 180.4km from Sines down to Albufeira, flat enough to all but guarantee a bunch finish, and a bunch finish is what it produced.
The overall stayed put
Rui Oliveira is still in yellow. The UAE Emirates rider took the lead on stage one, won by Francisco Campos at Queluz, and a compact sprint arrival rarely shifts time between the general classification contenders.
That will not last. Flat days reward sprinters and keep the peloton together; once the race turns inland and starts climbing, the gaps get measured in minutes rather than hundredths. Until then the jersey tends to stay where it is.
Where the race stands
The Volta opened at the weekend with the prologue in Lisbon and is now working across the south before heading for the mountains. If you plan to catch a stage roadside, scheduled start and finish times shift with the wind and the day’s average speed, so it is worth checking on the morning itself.
The full route, live classifications and official timings are on the Volta a Portugal site.
By Vasco Almada
File photo (Volta a Portugal 2014) · Image: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
