Sergio Pardilla made it a big day for MTN-Qhubeka in Portugal when the Spaniard won the first mountain stage of the race in solo fashion. Attacking with 2km to go, he managed to resist a late surge from pre-race favourite Rui Sousa (Efapel) and so took over the leader's jersey from a struggling Marcel Wyss (IAM).

MTN-Qhubeka has had plenty of success this season and now the team has moved itself into the position of potentially winning one of the longest stage races on the UCI calendar. The Spanish climber Sergio Pardilla took a solo win in the first mountain stage of the Volta a Portugal to dispose Marcel Wyss from the overall lead.

The Spaniard attacked with 2km to go and nobody reacted to his fierce acceleration. When pre-race favourite Rui Sousa made his expected move inside the final kilometres, he rapidly approached the lone Spaniard but ran out of metres in the end, ultimately finishing 3rd behind Edgar Pinto (LA Aluminios) 7 seconds behind Pardilla.

The time differences put Pardilla and Sousa equal on time but Pardilla will wear the leader's jersey on the fifth stage by virtue of the minor differences made in the opening team time trial. He takes his lead into tomorrow's 5th stage which has multiple climbs in the first part but as the final part is completely flat, either a sprint or a successful breakaway is expected.

The first mountain stage

The 181,4km fourth stage had a very hilly profile and ended with two tough climbs, one of them leading all the way to the finish line. As it is usually the case on big mountain stages, the start was extremely aggressive and it took some time for the early break to finally slip clear.

Finally, Antonio Carvalho (LA Aluminios), Hugo Sancho (LA Aluminios), Marcio Barbosa (LA Aluminios), Arkaitz Duran (Efapel), Joni Brandao (Efapel), Sergio Sousa (Efapel), Celio Sousa (Radio Popular), Ricardo Ferreira (Radio Popular), Antonio Olmo (Louletano), Helder Oliveira (OFM), Jay Thomson (MTN), Reto Hollstenstein (IAM), Pavel Kochetkov (Rusvelo), Amaro Antunes (Ceramica Flaminia), Alfredo Balloni (Ceramica Flaminia) and Adrian Palomares (Cycling Team De Rijke) got clear and they were joined by a number of other riders to form a big lead group consisting of 17 riders. Eduard Prades (OFM) tried to bridge across but had no success and fell back into the peloton.

IAM sets the pace

In the main group, the IAM team of overall leader Marcel Wyss worked hard to keep the gap stable at just below the 3-minute mark. Sergio Sousa, Celio Sousa and Alfredo Balloni made an attack and for a long time, they made up a front trio until they were brought back by their fellow escapees.

When the serious climbing started, Carvalho, Sancho, Barbosa, Brandao, Sergio Sousa, Celio Sousa, Ferraira, Olmo, Oliveira, Hollenstein, Balloni, Kochetkov and Renaud Dion (Bretagne) made up the front group while they were chased by Luis Silva (Louletano), Thomson and Palomares. Those three chasers were soon caught by the IAM-led peloton.

The lead group splits up

On the climb, the front group split up under the hard pace set by Brandao and only Sergio Sousa, Celio Sousa, Sancho, Barbosa and Olmo were able to keep up with the Portuguese champion. The remaining escapees were all caught by the peloton and the same happened to Rui Vinhas (Louletano), Delio Fernandez (OFM) and Rui Vinhas (Efapel) who had all momentarily been in front of the peloton.

The Efapel squad was now preparing a win for favourite Sousa and so the team set a hard tempo on the climb which saw many riders fall of the pace. As they crested the summit, they were only 1.35 behind the front sextet.

A hard chase

MTN-Qhubeka (working for Pardilla), OFM (working for Gustavo Cesar Veloso) and IAM (working for Wyss) had now combined forces to chase the break and they quickly brought down the gap. When the advantage was down to 35 seconds Brandao attacked and only Celio Sousa, Olmo and Sancho were able to respond.

Olmo countered the move and got clear on his own while the his former companions were picked up by the fast-moving peloton. The Spaniard did a fantastic job to keep the peloton at bay and when he started th final 8,4km climb, he was still 30 seconds ahead.

Efapel kicks into action

However, Efapel had a plan and the Portuguese team hit the front hard on the lower slopes, bringing back Olmo within less than a kilometre. From then on, Efapel kept a hard tempo for a very long time while the peloton was gradually whittled down.

On the lower slopes, Wyss and defending champion Hugo Sabido were some of the first to fall off but the race leader refused to give up and he fought hard all the way to the top, ultimately only losing a minute to the stage winner.

An elimination race

The hard pace meant that it was an elimination race with no one daring to attack until Virgilio Santos (Radio Popular) finally took off with 3,5km to go. The Portuguese managed to build up a gap of more than 20 seconds and appeared to be riding strongly.

With 2km to go, Pardilla launched his move and he quickly made it past Santos. Behind, Sousa's teammate Hernani Broco had now whittled the group of favourites down to just those two Efapel riders, Pinto, Veloso, Vladislav Gorbunov (Astana) and Daniel Silva (Radio Popular).

Inside the final kilometre, Sousa finally made his move and only Pinto was able to keep up with the race favourite. They quickly overtook Santos but they ran out of metres in their quest to also chase down Pardilla. The Spaniard soloed across the line to take the win and the leader's jersey while Pinto beat Sousa in the sprint for 2nd, Veloso crossing the line a little later to take 4th.

Result:

1. Sergio Pardilla 5.13.31

2. Edgar Pinto +0.07

3. Rui Sousa

4 Gustavo Cesar Veloso +0.12

5. Hernani Broco +0.18

6. Daniel Silva

7. Virgilio Santos

8. Vladislav Gorbunov +0.22

9. Alejandro Marque

10. Delio Fernandez +0.35

General classification

1. Sergio Pardilla

2. Rui Sousa