The 2007 Volta a Portugal (Tour of Portugal) runs from 4 to 15 August over 10 stages.
The 7th stage in the Volta a Portugal was 168km from Lixa to Gondomar, over a course that would be more suitable to the sprinters after a couple of mountain stages.
In the end the stage came down to a bunch sprint in which around 20 riders contested with Paride Grillo (Ceramica Panaria-Navigare) prevailing for his second stage win. He relegated Mikhaylo Khalilov (Ceramica Flaminia) to second while yellow jersey leader Candido Barbosa (Liberty Seguros) picked up some valuable time bonuses with his 3rd placing. He was given even more of a bonus when the GC second place holder Eladio Jimenez (Karpin-Galicia) was unable to stay in touch with the pace of the sprint and allowed a 4 second gap to open up.
The leader of the Mountains Classification, Andre Cardoso (Fercase/Rota Dos Moveis) again increased his lead being first over the first Category 3 climb of the day and is now 20 points clear of Candido Barbosa.
Paride Grillo has managed to drag back a few points for the Points Classification competition thanks to his stage victory but is still 48 points behind Barbosa with only 3 stages left.
The Young Rider Classification is still headed by Tiago Machado (Riberalves-Boavista) who still holds a 2'05" lead over John-Lee Augustyn (Barloworld)
Stage and overall classification details below:
Stage 7 Results (Top 10)
1 Paride Grillo (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 3.53.48 (43.11 km/h)
2 Mikhaylo Khalilov (Ukr) Ceramica Flaminia
3 Candido Barbosa (Por) Liberty Seguros
4 Marco Bandiera (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
5 Bruno Neves (Por) LA MSS
6 Fco.Jose Torres (Spa) Barbot-Halcon
7 Antonio Bucciero (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare
8 Francesco Gavazzi (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
9 Tiziano Dall'Antonia (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare
10 Martin Garrido (Arg) Duja-Tavira
GC After Stage 7
1 Candido Barbosa (Por) Liberty Seguros 31.43.50
2 Eladio Jimenez (Spa) Karpin-Galicia 0.17
3 David Blanco (Spa) Duja-Tavira 0.28
4 José Azevedo (Por) Benfica 0.30
5 Xavier Tondo (Spa) LA MSS 0.37
6 Oscar Sevilla (Spa) Relax-GAM 0.54
7 David Bernabeu (Spa) Fuerteventura-Canarias 0.58
8 Tiago Machado (Por) Riberalves-Boavista 1.04
9 Hector Guerra (Spa) Liberty Seguros 1.29
10 Pedro Cardoso (Por) LA MSS 1.39
Points Classification
1 Candido Barbosa (Por) Liberty Seguros 118 pts
2 Paride Grillo (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 70
3 Eladio Jimenez (Spa) Karpin-Galicia 45
Mountains Classification
1 Andre Cardoso (Por) Fercase/Rota Dos Moveis 46 pts
2 Candido Barbosa (Por) Liberty Seguros 26
3 Jacek Morajko (Pol) Riberalves-Boavista 25
Teams Classification
1 Liberty Seguros 95.14.39
2 Duja-Tavira 1.16
3 Benfica 1.34
View details of other stages :
Prologue - Stage 1 - Stage 2 - Stage 3 - Stage 4 - Stage 5 - Stage 6
