73rd Classica Porto-Lisboa - 1.12

Portugal, June 10, 2003

2002 Results Results Past winners

Soeiro wins Portuguese classic

By João Cravo

Portuguese rider Pedro Soeiro (Carvalhelhos-Boavista) won the 73rd edition of Porto-Lisboa, a 330.4 km race that links the two main Portuguese cities, bringing back memories of former cycling marathons such as Bordeaux-Paris.

On June 10, the Portuguese National Day celebrates one of the greatest ever Portuguese writers, the 16th century poet Luis Vaz de Camões. He was the author of "Os Lusiadas", the immortal epic about the indomitable Portuguese navigators who gave new worlds to the World", discovering Brazil, the way to India by sea and also being the first Europeans to arrive on the shores of Japan.

On this same day, 78 riders from eight teams mounted their bikes in Porto ready to live their own epic journey of nine hours of non-stop cycling. Sixty-seven of them would actually arrive to the finish line in Lisbon. With 326 km to go, seven riders decided to try an impossible trick and attacked the peloton. By the 40 km mark, those seven men: Hélder Silva (Cantanhede-Marquês de Marialva), José Sousa (Antarte-Rota dos Móveis), Youri Sarkov (Carvalhelhos-Boavista), Rui Roque (LA Pecol), Oscar Serrano (ASC-Vila do Conde), Nélson Vitorino (Porta da Ravessa-Tavira) and José Oliveira (Pepolim & Irmãos-Ovarense), where riding 12'05" ahead of the main bunch and 7'45" ahead of Hugo Lucio (Barbot-Torrié), who was alone in between. Eight km later, Lucio realised that his effort would led him nowhere and was caught by the peloton.

At km 92, the magnificent seven had increased their advantage to 17'21" over the peloton. But 60 km further, the break was reduced to four men: Sousa, Serrano, Vitorino and Oliveira. By then the peloton was only 10'09" behind the quartet, and it looked doomed. At km 223, the four breakaways were 7'25" ahead of the peloton, despite being riding at the front of the race for six hours. For the four heroes of the day, the time to rest in the safety of the peloton came at km 239 when they were caught. Seven km later, the Jacky Durand of the Portuguese peloton, Nélson Vitorino, tried a second break. But this time he only had enough gas for six kilometres.

Several breaks were tried and stopped by the peloton up to the finish line on the track of the Estádio de Alvalade in Lisbon. Eight hours and forty minutes after the start, Pedro Soeiro entered the history of Portuguese sport by winning the last competition in a stadium that will now be demolished after being the stage of many important sporting events for the last 50 years.

A final note: Milaneza-MSS was not allowed to take part in this race due to its rank as Division 1 team.

Results - 330.4 km

1 Pedro Soeiro (Por) Carvalhelhos-Boavista                8.38.56 (38.201 km/h)
2 Unai Yus (Spa) Cantanhede-M. Marialva                      0.02
3 César Quitério (Por) Antarte-Rota Móveis        
4 Ruben Galvan (Spa) ASC-Vila Do Conde        
5 Ricardo Costa (Por) Porta Ravessa-Tavira        
6 Gustavo Lemos (Spa) Carvalhelhos-Boavista        
7 Vicente Reynés (Spa) LA-Pecol        
8 Atanas Petrov (Bul) Carvalhelhos-Boavista        
9 Paulo Ferreira (Por) Cantanhede-M. Marialva        
10 José Guillen (Spa) Pepolim & Irmãos-Ovarense        
11 Gustavo Veloso (Spa) Carvalhelhos-Boavista        
12 Nuno Marta (Por) Barbot-Torrié        
13 Joaquim Andrade (Por) Porta Ravessa-Tavira        
14 Cláudio Faria (Por) ASC-Vila Do Conde        
15 Virgilio Santos (Por) Antarte-Rota Móveis        
16 Juan Gomis (Spa) LA-Pecol                                 0.10
17 José Rodrigues (Por) Carvalhelhos-Boavista        
18 Nuno Ribeiro (Por) LA-Pecol        
19 Javier De La Torre (Spa) Pepolim & Irmãos-Ovarense        
20 Luis Pinheiro (Por) LA-Pecol        
21 Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Cantanhede-M. Marialva        
22 Luis Sarreira (Por) Cantanhede-M. Marialva        
23 Célio Sousa (Por) Carvalhelhos-Boavista        
24 Oscar Romero (Spa) Pepolim & Irmãos-Ovarense        
25 David Garcia (Spa) Cantanhede-M. Marialva        
26 Pedro Hermida (Spa) Pepolim & Irmãos-Ovarense        
27 David Blanco (Spa) Porta Ravessa-Tavira                   0.20
28 Danail Petrov (Bul) Carvalhelhos-Boavista                 0.35
29 Sérgio Franco (Por) Pepolim & Irmãos-Ovarense             0.43
30 Segis De La Torre (Spa) Pepolim & Irmãos-Ovarense        
31 Ruben Orbeaskoa (Spa) LA-Pecol                            0.51
32 Pedro Magalhães (Spa) Pepolim & Irmãos-Ovarense           1.00
33 Miguel Tabanera (Spa) Pepolim & Irmãos-Ovarense        
34 Jacek Morajko (Pol) Antarte-Rota Móveis                   1.09
35 Elígio Requejo (Spa) ASC-Vila Do Conde        
36 Pedro Costa (Por) Cantanhede-M. Marialva                  1.15
37 Youri Sourkov (Mda) Carvalhelhos-Boavista                 1.33
38 João Silva (Por) Antarte-Rota Móveis        
39 Ricardo Felgueiras (Por) Antarte-Rota Móveis        
40 Oscar Serrano (Spa) ASC-Vila Do Conde                     1.55
41 Israel Nuñez (Spa) ASC-Vila Do Conde        
42 Joaquim Sampaio (Por) Carvalhelhos-Boavista        
43 Jon Bru (Spa) LA-Pecol        
44 Helder Miranda (Por) Porta Ravessa-Tavira        
45 Bruno Castanheira (Por) LA-Pecol        
46 Vidal Fitas (Por) Porta Ravessa-Tavira        
47 Quintino Rodrigues (Por) ASC-Vila Do Conde        
48 Orlando Rodrigues (Por) LA-Pecol        
49 Helder Lopes (Por) Porta Ravessa-Tavira        
50 Luis Bartolomeu (Por) Porta Ravessa-Tavira        
51 Gerardo Fernandez (Arg) Antarte-Rota Móveis        
52 Pedro Barnabé (Por) Cantanhede-M. Marialva        
53 Rafael Milá (Spa) ASC-Vila Do Conde        
54 Rui Pinto (Por) Barbot-Torrié                              2.34
55 Marc Soares (Por) Pepolim & Irmãos-Ovarense        
56 Sérgio Ribeiro (Por) ASC-Vila Do Conde        
57 Sérgio Paulinho (Por) ASC-Vila Do Conde        
58 Hermano Vieira (Por) ASC-Vila Do Conde                     3.05
59 Oscar Diaz (Spa) Barbot-Torrié                             3.44
60 Fernando Sousa (Por) Antarte-Rota Móveis                  10.29
61 Hugo Lucio (Por) Barbot-Torrié        
62 Hugo Vitor (Por) Cantanhede-M. Marialva                   15.49
63 Helder Silva (Por) Cantanhede-M. Marialva        
64 David Gomes (Por) Barbot-Torrié        
65 Rui Roque (Por) LA-Pecol        
66 Alexandre Pinho (Por) Pepolim & Irmãos-Ovarense        
67 José Sousa (Por) Antarte-Rota Móveis        

Teams

1 Carvalhelhos-Boavista                                   25.56.52
2 Cantanhede-M. Marialva                                      0.10
3 LA-Pecol                                                    0.18
4 Pepolim & Irmãos-Ovarense
5 Porta Ravessa-Tavira                                        0.20
6 Antarte-Rota Móveis                                         1.09
7 ASC-Vila Do Conde
8 Barbot-Torrié                                               6.16
 
Courtesy of Antonio Dias

Past winners

2002 Francisco Perez (Por) Porta da Ravessa Portugal / Zurich
2001 Unai Emilio Yus (Spa) Cantanhede-Marques de Marialva    


Past winners courtesy of Mario Stiehl, www.world-of-cycling.com