A prologue of 5.4 kilometers along the Tagus River, in Lisbon, opens this Thursday the 11 days of competition of the Volta a Portugal by bicycle and will define who will be the first yellow jersey of the 83rd edition.
The individual exercise against the stopwatch of the 125 registered cyclists will begin at 15:21with the start of the American Barry Miller (Bai Sicasal Petro de Luanda) and will end about two hours later, when the Spaniard Jokin Murguialday (Caja Rural) starts up.
The number five jersey appears in the starting order of the prologue as the last runner from Praça do Império, at 5:25 pm, starting six minutes after António Carvalho, one of the leaders of Glassdrive-Q8-Anicolor.
Before the anonymous Spaniard of Caja Rural, names like Frederico Figueiredo (GlassDrive-Q8-Anicolor), Joaquim Silva and Tiago Antunes (Efapel), Delio Fernández and Alejandro Marque (Tuna General-Tavira-Maria Nova Hotel), or Vicente García de Mateos (Municipality of Aviludo-Louletano-Loulé).
In the absence of the two-time champion, the Portuguese Amaro Antunes, who failed the race after the W52-FC Porto lost sports license for the Prova Limpa operation and the preventive suspension of eight of its riders by the Portuguese Anti-Doping Authority (ADoP), the great favorite is last year’s runner-up, the Uruguayan Mauricio Moreira who starts his fight against the clock at 17:01.
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The cyclists start one minute apart and must comply with the 5.4 kilometers along the Tagus, starting and finishing at Praça do Império, on a completely flat and fast route, which can have the wind as a determining factor.
The 83rd Volta a Portugal will be held between this Thursday and August 15, with a total of 1,559.7 kilometersin Lisbon to Gaia.
Source: Observadora
