{"id":195040,"date":"2024-02-19T12:11:47","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T12:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=195040"},"modified":"2024-02-19T12:12:21","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T12:12:21","slug":"evenepoel-wins-volta-ao-algarve-thanks-to-dominant-itt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/19\/evenepoel-wins-volta-ao-algarve-thanks-to-dominant-itt\/","title":{"rendered":"Evenepoel Wins Volta ao Algarve Thanks to Dominant ITT"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a second-tier and 2.Pro race in late winter, the five-stage Volta ao Algarve boasted close to a Grand Tour lineup, with the likes of Remco Evenepoel, Geraint Thomas, Wout van Aert, Sepp Kuss, Ben Healy, and Tom Pidcock (to name just a few) at the start. As expected, Evenepoel won the hotly contested race, his third victory at the Algarve, but he and his Soudal Quick-Step team didn\u2019t have it all their own way. The world time-trial champion won a dominant victory in the stage 3 ITT, 16 seconds ahead of the 21-year-old American Magnus Sheffield (INEOS Grenadiers), but they had probably expected two more stage wins. And Evenepoel would have taken stage 2 and Sunday\u2019s final stage, both of which had summit finishes, if not for the defending Algarve champion Dani Martinez (BORA-hansgrohe) who outkicked the Belgian both times.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Evenepoel\u2019s GC victory margin over Martinez was 43 seconds, 8 seconds fewer than the time he gained on the Colombian in the ITT, which illustrates how important that win was to the final outcome. Visma\u2013Lease a Bike\u2019s Jan Tratnik came third in the GC, 1:25 behind the winner. After the final stage, Evenepoel said that a gearing problem forced him to ride the final 20 km on the big chain ring, which meant that he had to work very hard on that final climb. Still, for someone targeting this year\u2019s Tour de France, which has many climbs much more difficult than the ones he faced here and the world\u2019s best climbers racing against him there, his failure to win one of the mountain stages will be cause for worry. But the Tour is still more than four months away, so there is plenty of time to reach peak fitness.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\u201cI\u2019m very happy with the overall win,\u201d Evenepoel said in a <\/em>post-race interview<\/a>. \u201cAlso my team handled a difficult situation in a very strong way today. We always kept calm, especially if you have a guy like Mikel Landa in the team. He has a lot of experience and he controls the guys.\u201d Referring to the gearing problem, he said climbing on the big ring \u201ckilled my legs because I\u2019m a guy that likes to have a high cadence. But with the big gear on the whole climb, I felt that my legs were out of energy (in the final sprint). Which is a pity because I think I could have won today.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>The Belgian\u2019s praise of teammate Landa, who is in his first season as a domestique rather than team leader, was based on the Spaniard\u2019s strong riding after a long-range attack by Wout van Aert (Visma\u2013Lease a Bike) decimated the Soudal support riders and left only Landa to pull his leader into a position where he could race for the stage victory. <\/em>\u201cThe race became crazy and difficult for us but we stayed together, worked together and in the final, we saved it,” Landa told Eurosport after the race. \u201cI enjoyed it. I worked hard and we got the victory so I’m happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The race was also a success for van Aert who is preparing for the spring Classics and the Olympics. Despite having few ambitions in the Algarve other than testing his legs and improving his form, he won a surprising bunch-sprint victory in stage 3, outkicking Rui Olivera (UAE Team Emirates) and Marius Mayrhofer (Tudor Pro Cycling) to take his first road victory of the season. \u201cActually, it was a last-minute decision [to race for the win] but a great one,\u201d Van Aert told\u00a0journalists after the stage<\/em> finish. \u201cMy goal was to stay out of trouble in these stages but I think that the approach to the sprint was way easier and safer than the first stage. We were in the front with the team and it was our goal to stay in a safe position and then I thought, why not?\u201d<\/p>\n

BORA will be delighted with Martinez\u2019s performance. It means they will have a strong rider in the Giro d\u2019Italia to face off against Tadej Poga\u010dar (UAE Team Emirates) and a powerful climber to help team leader Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d climb those imposing Tour mountains. The former INEOS rider came to BORA at the beginning of this year as did Rogli\u010d, giving the German team what looks to be a strong one-two punch in the mountains. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a second-tier and 2.Pro race in late winter, the five-stage Volta ao Algarve boasted close to a Grand Tour […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":195041,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[3544,4884],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-195040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling","tag-remco-evenepoel","tag-volta-ao-algarve","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"\nEvenepoel Wins Volta ao Algarve Thanks to Dominant ITT - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For a second-tier and 2.Pro race in late winter, the five-stage Volta ao Algarve boasted close to a Grand Tour lineup, with the likes of Remco Evenepoel,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/19\/evenepoel-wins-volta-ao-algarve-thanks-to-dominant-itt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Evenepoel Wins Volta ao Algarve Thanks to Dominant ITT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For a second-tier and 2.Pro race in late winter, the five-stage Volta ao Algarve boasted close to a Grand Tour lineup, with the likes of Remco Evenepoel,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/19\/evenepoel-wins-volta-ao-algarve-thanks-to-dominant-itt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-19T12:11:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-19T12:12:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/02\/profimedia-0835470026.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1027\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Siegfried Mortkowitz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/19\/evenepoel-wins-volta-ao-algarve-thanks-to-dominant-itt\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/19\/evenepoel-wins-volta-ao-algarve-thanks-to-dominant-itt\/\",\"name\":\"Evenepoel Wins Volta ao Algarve Thanks to Dominant ITT - \u0160koda We Love Cycling\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/19\/evenepoel-wins-volta-ao-algarve-thanks-to-dominant-itt\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/19\/evenepoel-wins-volta-ao-algarve-thanks-to-dominant-itt\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/02\/profimedia-0835470026.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-19T12:11:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-19T12:12:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"description\":\"For a second-tier and 2.Pro race in late winter, the five-stage Volta ao Algarve boasted close to a Grand Tour lineup, with the likes of Remco Evenepoel,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/19\/evenepoel-wins-volta-ao-algarve-thanks-to-dominant-itt\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/19\/evenepoel-wins-volta-ao-algarve-thanks-to-dominant-itt\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/19\/evenepoel-wins-volta-ao-algarve-thanks-to-dominant-itt\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/02\/profimedia-0835470026.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/02\/profimedia-0835470026.webp\",\"width\":1400,\"height\":1027,\"caption\":\"Remco Evenepoel\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/19\/evenepoel-wins-volta-ao-algarve-thanks-to-dominant-itt\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Evenepoel Wins Volta ao Algarve Thanks to Dominant ITT\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/\",\"name\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\",\"description\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling magazine\",\"alternateName\":\"\u0160koda WLC\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/author\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Evenepoel Wins Volta ao Algarve Thanks to Dominant ITT - \u0160koda We Love Cycling","description":"For a second-tier and 2.Pro race in late winter, the five-stage Volta ao Algarve boasted close to a Grand Tour lineup, with the likes of Remco Evenepoel,","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/19\/evenepoel-wins-volta-ao-algarve-thanks-to-dominant-itt\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Evenepoel Wins Volta ao Algarve Thanks to Dominant ITT","og_description":"For a second-tier and 2.Pro race in late winter, the five-stage Volta ao Algarve boasted close to a Grand Tour lineup, with the likes of Remco Evenepoel,","og_url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/19\/evenepoel-wins-volta-ao-algarve-thanks-to-dominant-itt\/","og_site_name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling","article_published_time":"2024-02-19T12:11:47+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-02-19T12:12:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1400,"height":1027,"url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/02\/profimedia-0835470026.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Siegfried Mortkowitz","Est. reading time":"5"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/19\/evenepoel-wins-volta-ao-algarve-thanks-to-dominant-itt\/","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/19\/evenepoel-wins-volta-ao-algarve-thanks-to-dominant-itt\/","name":"Evenepoel Wins Volta ao Algarve Thanks to Dominant ITT - \u0160koda We Love Cycling","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/19\/evenepoel-wins-volta-ao-algarve-thanks-to-dominant-itt\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/19\/evenepoel-wins-volta-ao-algarve-thanks-to-dominant-itt\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/02\/profimedia-0835470026.webp","datePublished":"2024-02-19T12:11:47+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-19T12:12:21+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"description":"For a second-tier and 2.Pro race in late winter, the five-stage Volta ao Algarve boasted close to a Grand Tour lineup, with the likes of Remco Evenepoel,","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/19\/evenepoel-wins-volta-ao-algarve-thanks-to-dominant-itt\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/19\/evenepoel-wins-volta-ao-algarve-thanks-to-dominant-itt\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/19\/evenepoel-wins-volta-ao-algarve-thanks-to-dominant-itt\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/02\/profimedia-0835470026.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/02\/profimedia-0835470026.webp","width":1400,"height":1027,"caption":"Remco Evenepoel"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/19\/evenepoel-wins-volta-ao-algarve-thanks-to-dominant-itt\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Evenepoel Wins Volta ao Algarve Thanks to Dominant ITT"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/","name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling","description":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling magazine","alternateName":"\u0160koda WLC","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/author\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195042,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195040\/revisions\/195042"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195040"},{"taxonomy":"global-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/global-categories?post=195040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}