Chuzhda escapes to solo stage win

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The eighth stage of the Tour of Portugal was another scorching hot day for the weary peloton. Ukrainian Oleg Chuzhda, a factor in several escapes so far in the race, finally got his stage win with a solo effort to Aveiro.

The Contentpolis-Ampo rider was part of an 18-man break which went away in the first 10km. The peloton was content to let the leaders burn up in the hot sun, and the gap opened up to nearly 12 minutes before the bunch was able to shrug off the summer siesta.

Tops on GC in the move was Pedro Lopes (CC Loule), who sat 5:48 down on leader Nuno Ribeiro (Liberty Seguros) at the start of the day.

The real competition was for the mountains classification, with leader Sergio Sousa being pursued into the move by second placed Helder Oliveira (Barbot - Siper) and Chuzhda, who was in third.

The full composition of the break was as follows: Krasimir Vasilev (Palmeiras Resort-Tavira-Prio), Filipe Cardoso (Liberty Seguros), Celestino Pinho (LA-Paredes Rota dos Móveis) Sérgio Sousa and Celio Sousa (Madeinox-Boavista), Hélder Oliveira and Sérgio Ribeiro ( Barbot-Siper), Pedro Lopes (CC Loulé-Louletano-Aquashow), Marco Marzano (Lampre-NGC), Simon Clarke (ISD-Neri), Javier Etxarri, Ruben Reig and Oleg Chuzhda (Contentpolis-Ampo), and Jose Javier Ramirez Toribio (Andalucia-Cajasur), Dirk Bellemarkers (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago), Tomas Buchacek and Martin Hebik (PSK Whirlpool-Author).

Reig, Clarke and Bellemarkers attempted to get away before the single categorized climb of the day at km 110, but were caught on the slopes of the category 3 hill.

Vasilev took the points, with Cardoso, Marzano and Chuzhda behind, which allowed Sousa to hold onto the green jersey.

With the sole difficulty out of the way, the riders pushed the pace on the descent to break up the lead group. A group of seven formed over the top, including the top four at the KOM, both Sousas and Oliveira.

But it was Chuzhda who emerged from the descent the solo leader, with only pairs of riders unable to organize a chase.

Lopes, Oliveira and Hebik failed to make up ground, and fought for second place on the finish line, 49 seconds behind stage winner Chuzhda. Ramirez and Reig came in two minutes down, while Bellemakers and Clarke were next to sprint for the remaining places. Pinho led Marzano across the line without contest, while Buchacek took the sprint from the rest of the breakaway.

Danilo Hondo led the main peloton across 4:53 behind Chuzhda, but more importantly well within enough time for the Liberty Seguros team to keep Ribeiro in yellow. Through his effort, Lopes moved into seventh overall.