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01:30 GMT         Day 5 of 90, Season 69    

Volta ao Porto - Review
by Yuri, at 31/5-21 - 11:04 GMT


  Written by Yuri of Yuri SuperTeam
  
  Review Volta ao Porto
  
  And after 10 hard stages, we‘re back in Porto to say goodbye to yet another impressive competition on the northern Portugal routes and once again, it’s time to crown Claude Vogels (Help) as our GC Winner! Vogels now joins the very restrict club of riders who won back-to-back Volta General Classifications! Only Maruyama Dai and Baatar Ariuntungalag have done it before in 47 editions of the Tour! Is he now aiming for a 3rd consecutive win? That would be a first!
  
  Now that the Tour is over, let’s go back to our initial list of favorites and see how they performed:
  1. Claude Vogels (Help) – 0” *****
  2. Jerry Tuimavave (Willunga Hill) – 26” ***
  3. Phongsavanh Phanvathvongsack (Ello Ello) – 1’13” ****
  4. Eduard Pavelka (Lokomotíva Zvolen) – 1’35” ***
  5. Uwe Gassner (Sicco) – 2’01” *****
  6. Bengt Granskog (Team WonderDee) – 2’08” **
  7. Ferris Parlow (logoloos) – 2’18” ****
  8. Josias

Marroquín (Team Guy) – 2’50” ***
  
  10. Emrick Quain (YCO) – 3’53” ***
  11. Denis Ha?as (AnnoDomini) – 4’10” ***
  12. Phil Preston (royle) – 4’17” ***
  
  14. Holger Boldsen (Bilsky) – 6’33” ***
  15. Benedetto Giara (Schiavi di Don) – 6’59” **
  16. Pascoal Baptista (Yuri SuperTeam) – 7’02” **
  
  23. Ksawery Jagodzi?ski (Vaduz) – 11’44” **
  
  30. Gijsbert Zeydeveld (TD rockets) – 15’56” **
  
  Now let’s check where the Tour was lost by some of these favorites:
  - Stage 3:
  Ksawery Jagodzi?ski had a bad crash close to the final climb and couldn’t recover quickly enough. In the end he lost 3’40” to 2nd place meaning that his GC hopes were over.
  On the same stage, Benedetto Giara wasn’t feeling that great and ended losing 2’24” to 2nd place.
  
  - Stage 5:
  As expected, the first real TT would bring some real damages. Gijsbert Zeydeveld lost 2’08”, Holger Boldsen lost 2’11”, Phil Preston lost 2’17” and Pascoal Baptista lost 3’27”.
  
  - Stage 9:
  And right in the last decisive stage, Bengt Granskog lost 2’03” while Josias Marroquín lost 2’34”.

Tour is lost for some, but where was it won? Who was the best climber and the best TTer out of these riders?
  Best Climber:
  (Stages 3, 6 and 7)
  1. Josias Marroquín (Team Guy) – between -35” to -23”
  2. Jerry Tuimavave (Willunga Hill) – 0”
  3. Bengt Granskog (Team WonderDee) – 12“
  4. Phongsavanh Phanvathvongsack (Ello Ello) – between -8“ and 22“
  5. Eduard Pavelka (Lokomotíva Zvolen) – between (impossible to measure how much time he won on stage 3) and 17”
  
  Best TTer:
  (Stages 1, 5 and 9)
  1. Claude Vogels (Help) – 0”
  2. Ferris Parlow (logoloos) – between 19” and 40”
  3. Uwe Gassner (Sicco) – 40“
  4. Jerry Tuimavave (Willunga Hill) – 1’11”
  5. Phongsavanh Phanvathvongsack (Ello Ello) – between -2’00“ and 2’12“
  
  I will also take the risk to award the best rider of the Tour award to Jerry Tuimavave (Willunga Hill). His impressive performance throughout the Tour surprised me a lot considering I only awarded him *** at the start of the Tour. He would even take this home if he hadn’t had the misfortune of losing 1’11” during Stage 5 TT after a terrible off day.
  
  See you guys next season!



Comments


Schiavi di Don at 11:08 31/5-2021
  Great review, and it was a nice Volta!
  Also apologies to Giara from me, because he had to race the entire tour with DP under 70. Poor kid!


Velosipedska at 11:29 31/5-2021
  Solid review! Enjoyed following the tour this season, congrats to Help and Clauge Vogels.


TD rockets at 11:31 31/5-2021
  Nice review, happy to be the only top 9 finisher that wasn’t considered a favourite!


Team WonderDee at 11:43 31/5-2021
  Great review. Thanks for a great tour


Help at 13:14 31/5-2021
  Great work Yuri, it was a close tour. I was thonking about selling Vogels, but will try to 3 peat instead


Lokomotíva Zvolen at 15:11 31/5-2021
  Great coverage all the way, thanks!


Team Guy at 18:23 31/5-2021
  Great stuff, all the coverage made this tour very enjoyable


Bilsky at 19:31 31/5-2021
  Nice write up and thanks for the coverage all the way through


Vaduz at 07:08 1/6-2021
  Great summary. I do think that despite everything jagodzinski must have been in the top 5 TT since he finished higher than phong in all 3 TTs. Off days / crashes on all mountain stages were his downfall. And a manager who screwed up his TF...


AnnoDomini at 15:32 1/6-2021
  I think this was a very competetive edition of the tour with more captains in TF and generally strong lineup. Danis Halas performed quite similarly to previous editions, but previously it was enough for a place in top 9 GC, while this time it wasnt enough.
  Again thanks to all for the great coverage!


Silenzio at 17:08 1/6-2021
  With current media-coverage this tour must be considered one of the most important races in the calendar, and clearly is surpassing Germany Tour as most prestigious tour in the game.