In today's Stage 7, the riders faced another long day in the saddle with 182.7 km, most of it flat. With only one Cat 3 climb at the 133.6 km mark, Angel Edo's Milaneza-MSS squad (a.k.a. Maia-Milaneza) was looking to try to keep things together for their sprinter while trying defend the GC lead of Joan Horrach. For their part, LA-Pecol was trying to set up their fast man Candido Barbosa, the Portuguese hero who has already won two sprint finishes so far in the Volta. Today also saw three intermediate sprints at 60.7 km, 98 km, and 164.6 km, and Celio Sousa (Parades-Rota dos Moveis) was looking to hold on to his slim lead in the race for the Metas Volantes White Jersey.

There was some action early, as a small attack went off the front and a crash forced the abandonment of Kelme-Costa Blanca rider Leandro Navarrette (who sustained an injured knee). The peloton chased down the breakaway after about a 15 km chase. At the 28 km point the Spanish teams started to liven things up some more, with Xabier Zandio (iBanesto.com) and David Munoz (Kelme-Costa Blanca) putting in a nice attack. After the pair gained about 20", a number of other riders counter-attacked to try to join them. By the 47 km point there were three groups on the road. In the first group were Xandio, Munoz, Thorsten Rund (Team Coast), Eduardo Gonzalez (Barbot-Torrie), Darius Skoczylas (CCC-Polstat), Julian Fernandez (Pepolim & Irmaos-Ovarense), and Luis Sarreira (Cantanhede-Marques de Marialva). At 30" was a second group containing Celio Sousa (trying to defend his White Jersey), Helder Lopes (Porta da Ravessa-Zurich), David Sojo (Matesica-Aboboda), and Javier Gilmartin (Pepolim & Irmaos-Ovarense). The peloton was at 2' 30" behind the leaders. By the 63 km point, the lead to the chase group was at 1' 03" and the peloton was at 4' 04". At the first Meta Volante (66.7 km) Gonzalez went through ahead of Sarreira and Skoczylas. With the leaders still pulling away, the chasers gave up and were reabsorbed by the peloton; after 88.6 km the lead had grown to 7' 02", with the peloton clearly satisfied to let the breakaways have a go.

At the second Meta Volante (98 km) Gonzalez won again, this time ahead of Munoz and then Sarreira. The gap leveled off and stayed between 7' and 8' for quite a while. On the only categorized climb of the day, the Cat 3 Aljubarrota (133.6 km), Fernandez went over the top ahead of Gonzalez and Munoz. The breakaways were still working well, and the peloton had not yet begun to chase in earnest. Finally with about 40 km left the peloton began to accelerate. By the final Meta Volante of the day at 164.6 km, the gap had shrunk to under 4'. Gonzalez again took the maximum points across the line, followed by Fernandez and Sarreira. This allowed Gonzalez to take the lead ahead of Celio Sousa in the Metas Volantes competition. Sousa had tried to make the break and defend his lead, but he just didn't have the legs to bridge that gap today.

With the peloton coming down on them at full gas, it was shaping up to be a despirate dash to the finish by the escapees. With just over 11 km left Gonzalez jumped off the front and gained a 10" advantage, but he was chased down by the leaders with 9 km left to go. The peloton realized by this point that they had left it too late: they continued to chase hard to close the gap, but the escapees were going to make it to the finish. The winner would come from the lead group of seven. The group stayed all together for the final sprint, when Munoz was able to come around Sarreira and nip him on the line. It was a great victory for Munoz, the rider who had initiated the breakaway with Zandio and stayed off the front of the peloton for 154 km. The peloton was led in 49" later by Barbosa, who increased his lead over "Judge" Edo in the Points Competition. Horrach finished in the group to hold onto his GC lead.

Tomorrow has no categorized climbs, but has some seriously rolling terrain, so it looks like a good day for breakaways. The leaders will be looking to conserve their energy before the big showdown in the mountains on Stage 9.