Wout van Aert has won the third stage in the Tour of the Algarve. In the bunch sprint he beat Gerben Thijssen.
After the muscle flexing between the classification men, another stage followed on Friday that was marked by a dot for the sprinters. Gerben Thijssen, decked out in the green points jersey, was looking for a two out of two after taking control of the opening stage. He certainly did not have to fear competition from Wout van Aert. The Kempen resident indicated in advance that he did not want to take any risks. At Lidl-Trek there was another fellow countryman, Edward Theuns, who had set his sights on this stage.
There was no Belgian in the traditional flight. With Afonso Eulálio, Carlos Salgueiro, António Ferreira, Frederico Figueiredo and Francisco Morais, there are five Portuguese. The Argentinian Nicolás Tivani and the Spaniard Raúl Rota were part of this seven-man leading group, which was given a lead of around three minutes by the peloton to cycle in the spotlight for much of the day.
The sprinter teams were the most active in that peloton. Including Bora-hansgrohe (for Jordi Meeus and leader Daniel Felipe Martinez), Arkéa-B&B (for Arnaud Démare), EF Education-EasyPost (for Marijn van den Berg) and Intermarché-Wanty (mainly for Gerben Thijssen, although Vito was also Braet from the party) showed themselves at the front.
At 80 kilometers from the finish, northern neighbor Marijn van den Berg was allowed to put his profit ambitions aside. Together with a lot of others, the Dutchman had a serious fall. Unlike Van den Berg, teammate Rui Costa was forced to leave the race. He is feared to have a broken collarbone.
After the last ‘climb’ of the day – on the Faz Fato (4.7 km at a gradient of 3.3) – only three escapees remained. Tivani, Figueiredo and Salgueiro had a lead of 1’20” at that moment. A margin that was impossible to maintain with 30 kilometers to go.
Ultimately it was home rider Salgueiro who tried to hold on as the ‘last man standing’, but the 15 final kilometers were for the peloton. Wout van Aert appeared two kilometers from the finish. He went all out for his chance and finished it off nicely. The man from Visma Lease a Bike reassembled Gerben Thijssen, among others.
