Pericas achieves his first professional victory in Portugal
The Catalan Adrià Pericasfrom UAE Team Emirates, triumphed this Thursday in the seventh stage of the Return to Portugal and joined the fight to win this competition.
For much of the day, the 20-year-old Catalan was in the breakaway group with the yellow jersey Alexis Guerin and the Russian Artem Nych (both from Anicolor/Campicarn), and overtook the first two in the general classification near the finish line to finish with a time of three hours, 48 minutes and 32 seconds.
This seventh stage included 153 kilometers between the towns of Vieira do Minho and Termas do Gerês, and even entered Spanish territory, something that had not happened in this test since 1995.
Adrià Pericas is being one of the revelations of this 87th Volta a Portugal and, in addition to leading the youth category, he has risen to third place overall, 1 minute and 57 seconds behind the leader Alexis Guerin.
Nych – the winner of the last two editions of the Volta – and Guerin were second and third in this stage, with the same time as Pericas, so the Frenchman continues with the yellow jersey and with the same advantage of 0:47 in the general classification over his teammate.
Spaniards Jokin Murguialday (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and David Domínguez (Feira dos Sofás-Boavista) were also among the top ten of the day, sixth and seventh, respectively.
The runners will continue along the border with Spain in the eighth stage of the Volta a Portugal, made up of a 166.8 kilometer route between Melgaço and Fafe, where the finish line will be at the end of a climb.
