Gustavo Cesar Veloso was under pressure in the queen stage of the Volta a Portugal but managed to defend his lead by limiting his losses to Rui Sousa. Despite being a better time triallist than his nearest rivals, he refuses to take the overall victory for granted.

Gustavo Cesar Veloso was about to lose it all in today's queen stage of the Volta a Portugal when Rui Sousa launched a long-distance attack and constantly gained ground on the struggling race leader. When his teammate Delio Fernandez who had been the only rider capable of following Sousa, dropped back to help him in the finale, however, he managed to defend his lead.

Veloso reached his pre-stage goal of distancing Luis Leon Sanchez before the time trial and now leads Sousa by 28 seconds. With just two flat stages and the TT left, the Spaniard is the overwhelming favourite to win the race but refuses to celebrate anything yet.

"Again my teammates demonstrated great professionalism," he said. "All my teammates knew that I was the team's best option. We had made things clear and did what we had planned.

"I don't want to celebrate yet. I have no won the Volta before I have crossed the line in Lisbon."