Volta a Portugal: Hugo Scala Jr secures stage 5 win from breakaway

Hugo Scala Jr (Project Echelon Racing) outpaced Fábio Costa (ABTF-Feirense) at the uphill finish of stage 5 of the Volta a Portugal and captured the biggest win of his career.

The 26-year-old US rider was part of the day’s 12-rider breakaway, and he soared to the front with his Portuguese companion in the closing kilometres to decide the 176.8km stage in a two-up sprint. Once Scala Jr hit the gas, Costa could not find go around and settled for second. 

Julius Johansen (Sabgal-Anicolor) led a chase group of six riders across the line for third in Bragança, five of them together at 14 seconds back and the sixth rider falling back another three seconds

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The breakaway, which escaped in the opening 5km, was allowed a leash of more than 4 minutes, which gave José Félix Parra (Kern Pharma) a taste of the virtual lead for a time. But ABTF Betão-Feirense stayed alert and did not give the front group more time and they kept Afonso Eulálio in the GC lead for a third consecutive day. 

Eulálio finished in the main group, 38 seconds after the winner, and holds a 16-second advantage over Colin Stüssi (Team Vorarlberg) and 26 seconds over Jon Aguirre (Kern Pharma).

After a rest day Monday, the Volta a Portugal returned for a fifth day of racing from Penedono and headed north. After an early classified climb in the opening 25km, a 2.6km fourth-category slope at Mėda (5.8%), the route passed through the Douro Valley. 

The final half of the 176.8km stage then ramped back up with two more classified climbs, including the 12.1km stretch to Serra de Bornes, a category 2 section with an average of 4.5%, where the breakaway was gone for the rest of the day. 

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