Cardoso claims stage and overall

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Liberty Seguros' Manuel Cardoso thrilled his hometown crowd by taking the sprint victory ahead of his compatriot Candido Barbosa in the first road stage of their hometown Tour to Castelo Branco. Not only did Cardoso take the stage win, but he also took the race lead from Barbosa thanks to the time bonus awarded at the finish.

The 228km stage began aggressively, with frequent attacks forcing the pace to over 47km/h in the first hour. 12 riders escaped midway through the first hour to make the day's breakaway.

The group consisted of Ricardo Mestre and Alejandro Marque (Palmeiras Resort-Prio-Tavira), Isidro Nozal (Liberty Seguros), Sérgio Sousa (Madeinox-Boavista), Hélder Oliveira (Barbot-Siper), Nuno Marta (CC Loulé-Louletano-Aquashow), Francesco Tomei (Lampre-NGC), Giairo Ermetti (LPR Brakes-Farnese Vini), Oleg Chuzhda (Contentpolis-Ampo), Frédéric Amorison (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago), Danilo Hondo and Tomas Buchacek (PSK Whirlpool-Author)

David Vaz (LA-Paredes Rota dos Móveis), Cristian Benenati (ISD-Neri) and Esteban Plaza (Andalucía-Cajasur) tried to bridge, but eventually had to give up and return to the peloton.

The leaders gained a maximum 9:38 advantage before the halfway point of the stage. But as the peloton began to launch its chase, five men attacked, leaving the remainder of the break to be swallowed by the field.

Hélder Oliveira (Barbot-Siper), Francesco Tomei (Lampre-NGC), Oleg Chuzhda (Contentpolis-Ampo), Frédéric Amorison (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago) and Danilo Hondo (PSK Whirlpool-Author) made up the new move.

Along with being virtual race leader on the road for much of the day, Hondo took two of the three intermediate sprint bonuses and second in the third to pad his chances of wearing the leader's jersey at the day's end.

However, the LPR Brakes team, hoping to set up the sprint for ace Alessandro Petacchi, did much of the work to nullify the lead of Hondo and his four companions. The break was finally caught w/ 4km to go, but Petacchi was nowhere to be found as the peloton had been split on the final climb of the day.

The absence of the Italian gave the advantage to the Portuguese fast men, and Cardoso took full advantage to take the win and race lead.