Cycling
Remco Evenepoel has brought the Tour of the Algarve to a successful conclusion. No one could threaten his leader’s jersey in the final stage, which was colored by an attacking Wout van Aert. The day’s win was again for Daniel Martinez. He beat Evenepoel (who was struggling with his acceleration device) in the sprint.
Even before the stage started in Faro, Evenepoel had already lost a competitor for the stage victory. Isaac del Toro had to forfeit after a ‘difficult night’. The first feat of the stage was an attack by Stefan Bissegger, Nils Politt and Jonas Abrahamsen. However, the trio was quickly overtaken. Filippo Ganna also did not get away. The reason? After 30 kilometers there was an intermediate sprint with bonus seconds. The result: six seconds (and points) for Gerben Thijssen, but also four seconds for Jan Tratnik. Van Aert’s teammate came within 1’08” of Evenepoel.
Then it was serious on the first categorized climb of the day. Van Aert emerged first, ahead of teammate Sepp Kuss and leader Evenepoel. A little later a leading group of 20 riders was formed. The best-known names: Jasper Stuyven, Filippo Ganna, Florian Sénéchal, Valentin Madouas, Rasmus Tiller, Maximilian Schachmann and Mattia Cattaneo. The latter is a teammate of Evenpoel. Per Strand Hagenes was present for Visma-Lease a Bike.
After that it was status quo for a while. The leading group maintained a lead of just over three minutes, while the troops of Soudal-Quick Step controlled the peloton. And then Wout van Aert thought it was time to attack. At 40 kilometers from the finish, our compatriot started looking for the leading group. Eleven kilometers later, Van Aert joined the front with some help from Hagenes, who had waited for his teammate, and the picked up Ben Healy.
Quick Martinez
Van Aert, ex-teammate Gijs Leemreize and Healy quickly proved to be the best of the pack and so the three of them set out. With about 15 kilometers to go, their lead was 50 seconds. In the group of favorites, Bora-Hansgrohe made their contribution to Daniel Martinez, Evenepoel’s challenger. The leader himself only had Mikel Landa at his side in the final.
The lead of the three shrank on the way to the final climb, a calf-breaking 2.4 kilometer climb at an average of 9.3 percent. Van Aert and co eventually started with about 15 seconds. Not enough to stay out of the grasp of the pursuers. At 2 kilometers from the finish, Evenepoel himself overtook his compatriot while Healy made a futile attempt to win a stage.
Martinez tried – he had to – once just before entering the final kilometer. Evenepoel parried without difficulty and even ostentatiously rode next to his competitor. Afterwards, Vuelta winner Kuss, among others, attacked once, but without success. The seven of them went for the stage victory, because Evenepoel had already won the overall victory. Our compatriot went all out in the final, but was again reassembled by Martinez. The Colombian won both mountain stages, ahead of overall winner Evenepoel. Our compatriot said afterwards that he had completed the last twenty kilometers with a defective gearbox.
