Top Portuguese Cyclist Venceslau Fernandes Expelled From This Year’s Tour Of Portugal

THE Portuguese cyclist Venceslau Fernandes has been expelled from the 84th Tour of Portugal.

After the end of the fifth stage on Monday, August 14, the race stewards evoked an ‘aggravated infraction’ against the 27-year-old AP Hotels&Resorts-Tavira-Farense rider. More specifically, he was penalised for ‘de facto routes between runners’, but there was no mention of the other rider involved in the incident.

However, the communiqué of the tirade mentions that the Spaniard Óscar Pelegrí (Burgos-BH) was fined for ‘dangerous behaviour between riders’. The punishment mentioned in the article was the same type that led to the expulsion of Fernandes.

He was also fined 500 Swiss francs and deducted 50 points from the UCI ranking. Pelegri was fined 100 Swiss francs and was docked 10 UCI ranking points, according to record.pt.

Fernandes is of course the son of the legendary Portuguese champion of the same name, who won the Volta in 1984 at the age of 39. He achieved multiple Top 10 finishes during a career that ended when he was 46.

Monday’s 184.3-km route between Mação and Alto da Torre was won by his Galician teammate Delio Fernández. As a result, he leads the standings by five seconds, ahead of the 30-year-old Swiss rider Colin Stüssi, from the UCI Continental Team Vorarlberg.

Txomin Juaristi of the Euskaltel-Euskadi team lies third, some 10 seconds behind. These incidentally are the same positions that the three riders finished the stage in, as reported by cmjornal.pt on Tuesday 15.

Heading towards rest day on Wednesday, today’s stage saw the riders taking on the sixth stage. The 168.5 km route will include 2 crossings in Guarda, 3 MV, in Penamacor, Sabugal and Trinta, and 5 PM that include Sortelha, Guarda, Videmonte and Aldeia Viçosa.

Véspera do dia de descanso, entramos na sexta etapa, e fim da primeira metade, da Volta a Portugal Continente 🇵🇹

São 168,5kms, 2 passagens na Guarda, 3 MV, em Penamacor, Sabugal e Trinta, e 5 PM que contam com Sortelha, Guarda, Videmonte e Aldeia Viçosa 🚵🏻 pic.twitter.com/pUrZcSnSLY

— Volta a Portugal (@VoltaPortugal) August 15, 2023

This year’s Volta started on August 8 and runs through to August 20. The sad news today was the withdrawal of Spanish cyclist Vicente García de Mateos. He was riding for the Aviludo-Louletano-Loulé Municipality team.

The 34-year-old finished third on the Tour of Portugal in both 2017 and 2018 but dropped out of this year’s race while lying in 49th position, already some 18.41 minutes behind his compatriot Delio Fernández, who has the yellow jersey, as reported by record.pt.