Tadej Pogacar wins Volta ao Algarve, Zdenek Stybar takes stage victory
Feb 25 2019 01:02 am CET
UAE-Team Emirates logo
Deceuninck-Quick-Step's Zdenek Stybar has taken the victory of the last stage of the Volta ao Algarve. Despite Soren Kragh Andersen's attempts to take the GC lead, Tadej Pogacar defended it successfully.
The last day of competition at the Volta ao Algarve had a route of 173.5 kilometres that featured three climbs of the third category and two of the second, including the mountain finish to Malhao.
The escape group of the day included riders like Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Tim Declercq (Deceuninck-Quick-Step), Jasper De Buyst (Lotto-Soudal), Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) and Jonas Koch (CCC Team). With around 22 kilometres to go and as the front group got slimmed, Soren Kragh Andersen (Sunweb), Zdenek Stybar (Deceuninck-Quick-Step), David de la Cruz (Sky) and Stephen Cummings (Dimension Data) jumped from the peloton.
At around 20 kilometres to go, the chasers caught Küng and Declercq and soon left them behind along with De la Cruz. Meanwhile, in the peloton, UAE Team Emirates worked hard to reduce the time with Kragh Andersen, who was putting Tadej Pogacar's lead at risk.
With 3 kilometres to go, Cummings couldn't follow the pace of Kragh Andersen. With two kilometres to go, Enric Mas (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) jumped from the reduced group while Pogacar seemed to be struggling with keeping the pace.
Stybar accelerated in the last metres and left Kragh Andersen behind and crossed the finish line on his own. Team Sky's Wout Poels arrived in the third position and Pogacar managed to defend his lead and became the new champion of the Volta ao Algarve.
SUBSCRIBE TO RSS FEEDS