At the half-way stage of cycling’s Tour of Portugal pre-race favourites David Blanco and Ricardo Mestre were still biding their time behind early yellow jersey holder Hugo Sabido (LA Aluminos).
Whereas former Tavira star Blanco’s bid for a record fifth title still looks very much on target in a close up fourth place, Mestre will do well to recover from his three crashes to date and make good his current disadvantage of almost two minutes.
