Fire leads to neutralisation and deviation for part of stage 4 of Volta a Portugal

The fire trucks that the day before been spraying water to keep the riders cool at Volta a Portugal were occupied with more pressing matters on the 185.2 km stage 4, with a fire on the route leading to the neutralisation of a section and deviation around an ascent.

The stage between Bragança and Mondim de Basto, which finished on a category 1 mountain pass, was neutralised at 51km to go, pausing at the Vila Real intermediate sprint point and skipping the Serra do Alvão climb to avoid the fire. Blazes had been burning in the area for some days, with the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority also extending its alert status across mainland Portugal to August 13 "in view of the weather forecasts for the coming days, which point to a significant increase in the risk of rural fires".

When the race was neutralised there was a breakaway of four out front but, after the race was restarted around 20km down the road, it was reeled back in through the final kilometers of the day of racing.

Once the catch occured, South Africa's Bryan Munton (Feirense-Beeceler) went on the attack to cross the line solo ahead of David Peña (AP Hotels & Resorts–Tavira–SC Farense) and Artem Nych (Anicolor-Tien21 Cycling), who with the podium spot moved into the overall race lead.

This was a "tough stage that had a setback—the neutralisation of the race due to the fires—which made it even harder, because we had to stop and start again," said defending champion Nych. "I'm very happy to wear the yellow jersey, but 8 seconds is not much of a difference."

Last year Nych moved into yellow on the final day in the individual time trial. Stage 4 winner Munton is the one that is currently in second spot overall at eight seconds back and then it is Peña at 12 seconds.

"The tough stages will begin after the rest day, when we will already be more tired, so we have to stay focused and alert. But we'll see, I hope everything goes well," said Nych.

The 10 stage 2.1 ranked race is scheduled to continue on Monday with a 155km stage from Lamego – which is situated around 30km from Vila Real, which is where the fire neutralisation occurred. After stage 5 the peloton gets a rest day before heading further south to Águeda for stage 6 on Wednesday and the challenging Torre summit finish on stage 7, then there is a smaller climb toward the finish on stage 8 potentially enough to disrupt the chance of a bunch finish but the sprinters should have their day on stage 9 while the an individual time trial will be the final test for the GC riders on stage 10.