Degenkolb lights up Lagos

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John Degenkolb (HTC-Highroad) won stage two of the Volta ao Algarve on Thursday, outsprinting Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Cervelo) and Michael Matthews (Rabobank) in the uphill finish at Lagos. The win is the first professional victory for the 22-year-old German, earned less than two weeks after his debut race with the American ProTeam.

While Farrar is an established sprinting star in the professional peloton, both Degenkolb and Matthews signal the arrival of new talent, as both shared the podium at last season's U23 world championship road race where Matthews outkicked Degenkolb for the gold medal. In 2011, each in their first season at the ProTeam level, Matthews had already notched one victory in a stage of his home Santos Tour Down Under. Now Degenkolb, too, has tasted victory this season.

"It feels incredible to take my first win as a professional," said Degenkolb. "I was almost there in Mallorca. It was close, but now I have it and I'm really happy. I have to thank my team. I was able to save my energy on the hills during the race and they did a great lead-out in the last kilometres.

"The last kilometre was a little crazy. I looked to Farrar and the other sprinters who were in front of me and decided to attack. There was a roundabout with 200 metres to go so I attacked before that and opened up a gap. With 200 metres to go I just sprinted and didn't look back."

Overnight race leader and opening stage winner Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) finished sixth on the day and remains atop the general classification. The 28-year-old Belgian leads Degenkolb by four seconds and Farrar by eight seconds overall.

The 186.5km stage from Lagoa to Lagos, the longest of the Volta ao Algarve, began under inclement weather and the peloton stayed together through the first KOM contest 31km into the race. Dutchman Wout Poels (Vacansoleil-DCM) prevailed atop the category three climb, edging out mountains classification leader Ricardo Mestre (Tavira) for top honours.

Seven kilometres later the first break of the day formed, comprised of Rémy Di Gregorio (Astana), Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank), Johan Coenen (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator) and Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM). The quartet's advantage was less than a minute as they topped the day's second KOM line at km 42.8, taken by De Gendt, but the peloton soon eased off the pace and let the escapees' lead ballooned to nearly four minutes.

As the break rolled along en route to the finish in Lagos, De Gendt continued to take all points coming his way as he claimed maximum points at both sprint lines, at kms. 64.8 and 99.7, as well as the day's final KOM at km 84.5. For his efforts, the Belgian would earn the sprint classification jersey at the finish.

The break's advantage dropped to two minutes after 100km of racing and continued to steadily decrease under the impetus of Gilbert's Omega Pharma-Lotto squad, setting tempo as is expected of the race leader's team. Twenty-eight kilometres later the break was neutralised after the quartet spent nearly 100km off the front.

Almost 60km still remained, however, and Oleg Chuzhda (Caja Rural) took advantage of a lull in the action to launch a solo attack. The 25-year-old Ukrainian's lead extended to 2:20 by km 151, but the teams of the sprinters came to the fore to bring the lone escapee back into their midst. Chuzhda put up quite a fight to resist the inevitable catch, and held off his pursuers until only 9km remained in the stage.

Quick Step, Cofidis and Rabobank all had riders driving the pace through to the finish, preventing any last-second escapes as happened the previous day, and Degenkolb proved the quickest in the dash to the line.