Volta Algarve 2023 – Stage 5 [FULL STAGE – Individual Time Trial]

February 19, 2023

Volta Algarve 2023 – Stage 5 ITT – Lagoa – Lagoa : 24,4 km

For many, the Volta ao Algarve marks the beginning of the road racing season in Europe – the point at which most of the biggest names in men’s cycling make their seasonal debuts and begin their preparations for the biggest races of the season. The five-day stage race, which tours Portugal’s southern Algarve region, typically takes place in mid-February, prompting many one-day specialists to use it as a racing tune-up ahead of the Spring Classics. Grand Tour riders also use it as an opportunity to dust off the winter cobwebs. Just a year after its debut edition in 1960, the Volta ao Algarve experienced a 16-year hiatus and was struck off the professional cycling calendar. It made a grand return in 1977, however, and has taken place every year since. In recent times the race has followed a tried and tested formula, with four road stages across the hilly Algarve and one individual time trial.

Dani Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers) shows that consistent performance pays off after a solid time trial performance in the finale of the Volta ao Algarve on Sunday launched him into overall victory. The Colombian finished third on the 24.4km course, which was enough to claim the overall title by two seconds ahead of teammate Filippo Ganna.

Stefan Küng (Groupama FDJ) won the stage, looking in fine TT form and clocking a 29:34 on the somewhat technical course to beat Rémi Cavagna (Soudal Quickstep), who finished four seconds down on the Swiss rider.

Wearing the Italian colours as national TT champ, Ganna claimed third place, 10 seconds back on Küng, while yellow jersey wearer Tom Pidcock finished in 19th place at 1:27 down on Küng to finish seventh overall.

“This morning, everyone on the team said, ‘okay, Filippo is number one for GC.’ Day by day, I was feeling better, but today was a surprise for me,” Martínez said after the finish.

Küng, meanwhile, said he knew it would be a close-run thing for the win, but added that he liked the Lagoa course.

“It feels very nice (to take the win),” he said. “I knew this course suited me. I was feeling good. I had power until the end, but I also knew it was going to be close.

“It’s really nice to take the victory and also the first victory of the season for our team. We worked a lot over the winter on our TT position, so a big thanks to my performance team and my mechanic. Without the team, it’s not possible to win here.

“For me, I really like this course. The rhythm is always changing. You have to push on all the time. I really like that when you have to change rhythm left and right. This course suits me well.”

How it unfolded
The skies were grey with a slight drizzle in the air during the finale stage of the Volta ao Algarve. The time trial was set to be the GC decider, and with just a minute separating the top 10 overall, the chance for a classification shake-up seemed imminent.

In the earlier wave of riders, Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-QuickStep) was the first rider to occupy the hot seat for a lengthy period of time, clocking a 31:00 flat on the 24.4km course around Lagoa.

Asgreen powered through the first and second intermediate checkpoints and set times that stood for about 20 minutes until Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe) bettered the Dane by to seconds.

It didn’t take long for Rémi Cavagna (Soudal-QuickStep) to threaten Politt’s time, along with Küng, who went across the first two intermediate checks with the fastest time, but the third check, went to Cavagna.

The French time trial specialist found himself briefly at the top of the leaderboard with a time of 29.38, but was quickly ousted by Küng, who took four seconds off Cavagna’s finishing time.

All eyes were on Ganna to storm into action. The Italian had a solid performance, but it wasn’t quite enough to take top honors at the end of the day. Still, the Ineos Grenadiers rider jumped from 10th to second overall, finishing just outside the top step by a mere two seconds behind his teammate Dani Martínez.

Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal-Quickstep) had an impressive ride to hang onto third place overall. The Belgian ended up seventh on the stage, 49 seconds back on Küng.

Yellow jersey Tom Pidcock knew he had a big task ahead of him to hang onto yellow and was pushed to show his cyclocross abilities when he lost control around a corner, flew up onto a dirt berm, but still managed to hold the bike up. He ended up 19th on the day, sliding down to seventh overall on GC and out of contention.

Results :

Final General Classification :