Volta ao Algarve: Evenepoel seals second stage race victory

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Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) secured overall victory at the Volta ao Algarve, distancing his closest overall rivals in the final 20.3km individual time trial with a superb ride to win the stage and the final yellow jersey.

World time trial champion Rohan Dennis (Team Ineos) showed off his rainbow stripes in style, setting a time of 24:17. However, Evenepoel was even faster and stopped the clock in a time of 24:08. Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ) was third at 19 seconds.

Evenepoel started the final time trial on equal time with Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) after winning the stage 2 uphill finish and then limiting his losses on the stage 4 finish atop Alto do Malhão. He was expected to put time into both of them but almost caught Martin - his two-minute man, and was far faster than Schachmann, creating a significant lead in the final overall classification.

The German set a time of 24:45 and so finished second overall, 38 seconds behind Evenepoel. Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) moved up to finish third overall at 39 seconds, while Martin fell out of the top ten and finished 11th at 1:59. The likes of Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo), Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos) and Greg van Avermaet (CCC Team) were all even further down behind the 20-year-old Belgian phenomenon.

"I'm really happy, I knew it was just 20km full gas and I started quite fast and then I knew that in the hilly sections, on the downhills, that I had to recover well, so that's what I did. I just went all out," Evenepoel explained, revealing his race strategy.

"The communication with the car was perfect, I knew every corner, every hole in the road. I'm very happy."

Evenepoel won the Vuelta a San Juan in Argentina and has now won his first stage race in Europe. His next goal is Tirreno-Adriatico, with the Giro d'Italia a major objective and some already suggesting he can be an overall contender in the Corsa Rosa. Asked if his Algarve victory sends a message to his rivals ahead of the Giro d'Italia in May, Evenepoel suggested he was not yet in his best form.

"No, no, that's not my goal. I'm working hard for a goal in two months time. I'm not in the best shape yet but I still have time, there's still a long way to go but I'm already happy with where I'm at now," Evenepoel said, also brushing off a question about the Tokyo Olympic Games where he will target the time trial and also be part of the Belgian team in the road race.

"Tokyo is a long way to go. I said I wanted to come to Algarve, I did my very best and performed as well as possible. Next up is Tirreno-Adriatico and we'll see how we go there. It's about going step by step, race by race, then we'll see in the end what the season brings."

How it unfolded

The sun again shone on the Algarve coast, giving the riders another stage in the sun. The day was a battle for two spoils, the stage victory and the overall classification, even if few hoped to dislodge Evenepoel.

The pure time trialist hoped to steal the day's victory and so recon rides, warm-ups and every tiny detail were considered for the rolling 20.3km time trial.

Jasha Sütterlin (Team Sunweb) set the early fastest time of 25:02 but that was soon bettered by talented WorldTour neo-pro Mikkel Berg (UAE Team Emirates) with 24:59.

The first time split came after 5.7km and the times there fooled many, especially after the steep climb up the cliff edge. The big time differences were made later on the climbs and fast descents when pure speed in gears of 56x11, bike handling skills, and a low tucked-in aero position all mattered.

Dennis showed how to do it, starting slow but finishing fast with a time of 24:17. 2019 time trial winner Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) started fast but faded, to set a time of 24:26. Nibali looked good in his first time trial on a Trek bike and started fast but he also faded in the second half of the 20.3km course, setting a time of 25:13. Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos) was off the pace with a time of 25:00. Teammate Michel Kwiatkowski was better, finishing sixth but the British super-team failed to finish with a rider in the final top 10 overall.

Evenepoel started last in the leader's yellow skinsuit. He was not expected to risk the overall victory for the stage win but was still very fast. He set a time of 6:22 at the 5.7km time split, 15 seconds better than Küng. Evenepoel tucked low over his time trial bike in search of every bit of speed and found it, recovering on the descents, powering up the climbs and blasting down the descents.

Schachmann was strong and stopped the clock in 24:45 but all eyes were on Evenepoel. He could see Dan Martin in the final kilometres and that only drove him on. He almost caught the Irishman and stopped the clock in 24:08. The stage victory and overall victory was his.

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