Victory for Johansen and dominance of Team Emirates in the prologue of the Volta a Portugal
The Return to Portugal It began this Wednesday with a prologue in which the Dane won Julius Johansenfrom UAE Team Emirates, a team that has dominated this opening day with three riders in the top ten.
Johansen He completed the prologue, consisting of a 6.5 kilometer time trial in the center of the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, with a time of seven minutes and 12 seconds, thus becoming the first wearer of the yellow jersey of the 87th edition of the competition.
The Nordic cyclist shares the podium with his teammate, the Portuguese Rui Oliveira (+4 seconds), and the also Portuguese Rafael Reis, from Anicolor/Campicarn (+7).
For his part, Italian Luca Giaimi finished in fourth position and helped UAE Team Emirates – the only ‘WorldTeam’ in the event – to take the lead in the team classification.
It was also a positive day for Euskaltel-Euskadi, one of the two Spanish teams in the Vuelta a Portugal along with Burgos-BH, who managed to place two riders in the top ten, since the Dutch Axel van der Tuuk and Txomin Juaristi finished in sixth and seventh place, respectively.
Furthermore, the winner of the last two editions of the Portuguese event, the Russian Artem Nych (Anicolor/Campicarn), started the defense of his titles on the right foot with a fifth place.
The Volta a Portugal will continue in the metropolitan area of Lisbon, specifically in the Sintra region, for its first stage, which will link the town of Lourinhã with Queluz on a route of 157.1 kilometers.
