Tuna veteran General Tavira was surprised by the attack at Peñas da Saude, Mauricio Moreira was second and Abner Gonzalez was third.
Alejandro Marc, a 39-year-old Galician from Pontevedra, surprised him on the toughest Volta mountain in Portugal, an attack that saw him win by 1 minute 03 seconds over Mauricio Moreira (Efapel) and Abner Gonzalez (Movistar).
The mountain stage was marked by intense marking between the runners of the main teams, with the W52-FC Porto, who attacked a lot with Amaro Antunes, Yoni Brandau and João Rodrigues, without success in this strategy, as their best result was fourth place with Amaro Antunes, at 1 min 12 behind the Atum General-Tavira-Maria Nova Galician hotel.
Mark, winner of the 2013 Volta race, even lost contact with the group of favorites on the first slopes of Serra da Estrela, the pivotal point of the 170.3 km stage starting from Serta.
It was Luis Gomez of Kelly-Simoldes-UDO who started the climb with a group of fugitives, the first to make it clear that he could win. But the Tavira runner, having returned to the strongest, took advantage of a moderate pace to break out of Peñas da Saude when 10 km remained.
Since W52-FC Porto only launches attacks and Efapel always responds through Mauricio Moreira, who scored Amaro Antunes and João Rodrigues, and Frederico Figueiredo, who followed Joni Brandao, the group never had the right rhythm.
When Mark was defeated and then overtook Luis Gomes, he found a new yellow jersey. In the group were Mauricio Moreira, the time trial driver who made a sensational stage, and the young Abner Gonzalez, the best in the acceleration achieved at the finish, followed by Amaro Antunes and Gustavo Veloso, this other veteran of Tavira, who can discuss the final victory.
Volta a Portugal has an unexpected favorite after arriving in Torre, Alejandro Marc, but the ranking is still wide open: the next nine runners are less than a minute apart.
The general classification has been ordered as follows:
1st Alejandro Mark (Hotel Tuna General-Tavira-Maria Nova), 13:16:14
2nd Mauricio Moreira (Efapel), 51 sec.
3rd place: Abner Gonzalez (Movistar), 1 min. 08 sec.
4th Gustavo Veloso (Hotel Tuna General-Tavira-Maria Nova), 1 min 09 sec.
5.º Yoni Brandau (W52-FC Porto), 1 min. 26 sec.
6.º Amaro Antunes (W52-FC Porto), mountains
7th Luis Gomez (Kelly-Simoldes-UDO), 1:30
8th João Rodrigues (W52-FC Porto), 13 min. 37 sec.
9.º Antonio Carvalho (Ephapel), mountain
10th Frederico Figueiredo (Ephapel), 1 min. 46 sec.
