Volta a Portugal: Francisco Peñuela wins stage 7 sprint in Paredes

Francisco Peñuela (Rádio Popular) won stage 7 of the Volta a Portugal with a final burst of speed in the reduced bunch in Paredes. He held off Tiago Antunes (Efapel) and German Nicolás Tivani (Aviludo-Louletano-Loulé Cancelho), who rounded out the podium in second and third, respectively.

The fight for the race lead continued between the top two riders, as yellow jersey Afonso Eulálio (ABTF Betão-Feirense) and second-overall Colin Stüssi (Team Vorarlberg) marked each other across the 160.4km hilly route, finishing in the top 10 across the finish line. 

Eulálio retained his 21-second lead over Stüssi, but third-placed Jon Agirre (Kern Pharma), dropped back in the tough finale and moved to 13th, now 3:28 back. Mikel Bizkarra (Euskaltel-Euskadi) moved up one spot in the GC to take over third, 55 seconds back.  

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Moving past the first of three intermediate sprints on another hilly day at the Volta a Portugal, 19 riders formed the first breakaway and took a 30-second advantage 41km into the affairs.

Efapel Cycling put three riders in the early move, while Burgos-BH, Illes Balears Arabay Cycling, and Aviludo-Louletano-Loulé Concelho each had two riders. The only teams not present were Vorarlberg, ABTF Betão-Feirense, Aviludo-Louletano-Loulé Cancelho and Petrolike.

The group advanced across the first of four classified climbs but called it a day on pushing the pace with just over 100km to go, aware that the final three climbs - Gandra (1.3km at 5.5%), Vandoma (2.4km at 8.8%) and Baltar (3.4km at 4.4%) - were bunched together in the final 38km.

On the descent of the opening climb headed to the Douro River in the Porto district, Javier Ibañez (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Oscar Pelegrí (Burgos-BH) got into a selection at the front and were joined by Henrique Casimiro (Efapel Cycling), Leangel Rubén Linarez (Tavfer-Ovos Matinados-Mortágua), Miguel Valls (GI Group Holding-Simoldes-UDO) and Diogo Narciso (Credibom-LA Aumínios-Marcos Car). 

Passing the halfway point of the stage, the time gap to the second breakaway faded and then disappeared as the peloton set a fierce pace for the final 60km and lots more climbing.

Ensuing attacks could not get away on the series of climbs. Stüssi tried multiple accelerations to distance Eulálio, but each strike was countered. 

The relentless action kept any solo attackers from breaking free, and once into the final 11km, César Fonte helped deliver his teammate Peñuela to the win. 

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