The North American from Rally Cycling arrived in isolation in Castelo Branco and the W52-FC Porto runner escaped in the last kilometer. Rafael Reis kept his yellow jersey.
The second stage of the 82nd Volta a Portugal ended with an unexpected result: the victory of the fugitive Kyle Murphy and the attack in the last minute by Yoni Brandao, who won seconds over all his opponents. Efapel’s Raphael Reis kept the yellow jersey.
Kyle Murphy (Rally Cycling) escaped just ten kilometers of the 162.1 kilometers that linked Ponte de Sor with Castelo Branco, accompanied by Marvin Scheulen (LA Alumínios-LA Sport) and Andrew Turner (SwiftCarbon).
The trio made almost the entire stage ahead: Portuguese Marvin Sheulen won the mountain leader’s jersey, and Murphy unexpectedly resisted the pursuit, directed mainly by the Spanish teams Kern Pharma and Caja Rural.
One of the rare stages that could have ended in a sprint had an even more unexpected outcome in the last kilometer, when Yoni Brandao attacked with force to “see what was going to happen and ended up winning a few seconds.” as he said at the end, the runner is W52-FC Porto.
Brandao finished 12 seconds behind Murphy, but was 5 seconds ahead of the peloton, and it was all counted at the same time. Rafael Reis lost those 5 seconds to the white and blue (unofficial classification), keeping the yellow jersey.
Yoni Brandao climbed to fourth in the overall rankings thanks to his attack and is now 18 seconds behind Reis and 5 seconds behind Mauricio Moreira, who, like the leader, is from Efapel and is second. Diego Lopez of Kern Pharma is in third place, 17 seconds behind yellow.
This Saturday, with the ascent of the Tower, 170.3 km stage, Volta a Portugal will be the first decisive day.
