Torben Sturmann ruled the roost today with back to back wins in Stage 8 and 9, consolidating his place at the top of the Sprint Classification as his closest rival crashed out. Once again, racing was marred by injuries to some of the top riders but there was also much to cheer about as Shinboners and Torreira emerged as winners for the day.
  
  Torreira's Yasir Sahir did just enough to stay ahead of the second placed Isaak Papadimitriou (Club Ciclista Riaza) in the General Classification. Team Dinmore's Ramiro Monteros moved up to third following some determined racing while exciting Venezuelan youngster Cruz Sierra (Team Jochem) dropped down a spot.
  
  Stage 8 was all Sturmann as the strong German led from start to finish. Gradient Levellers' Adler Talcott grabbed a surprising 2nd place after flying under the radar for practically the whole tour. Christoph Frisch managed a decent 3rd place but Team iPower boss ichti had only harsh words for his rider after he defied team orders and failed to backup Dan Korošec for the final sprint, leaving the latter to stumble home in 7th and deflate his hopes of challenging for the sprint title.
  
  deadalus was the big loser for the day as two of their riders somehow contrived to get in each others way. Yuri Ryndenko and Pierre Nieuwendijk will never live it down as they both suffered simultaneous rushes of blood to the head, taking each other out of the race after seemingly

steering into each other's path while pulling. As of presstime, the clip of the incident has already made it's way to youtube, but both riders will be in no condition to appreciate it as they were sent to hospital as a precaution.
  
  The only other two casualties for the race were Team WonderDee's Hubert Paulsen (exhaustion) and Scilian's Tariq Labid (got lost, went off course and collided with a cow).
  
  The Porto ITT was a much tighter affair though the end result was still pretty much the same - a win for Sturmann. Last season's winner Salvino Zubeldia (Yuri SuperTeam) just failed to make it two in a row, coming in a close second.
  
  Jahn Rosenlund (Team Jochem) pulled up short with an achilles injury late in the day, all but handing the Sprint Classification title to Sturmann. Tune Korsgaard also crashed out, completing a truly miserable day for the Dutch team. Dirk Zacn of Super Bros was the final victim of the day as he was forced to retire from the race due to injury.
  
  The tour now heads to the streets of Porto for the final parade stage where the sprinters will duke out for one final hurrah. Yasir Sahir will expect to be crowned champion, and probably will barring a catastrophic turn of events. Isaak Papadimitriou too looks to have sewn up the Youth Classification. So tomorrow's last stage will most probably be just what it's been described as - a parade.