Martens wins opening stage of Volta ao Algarve

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Paul Martens (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) kicked off his 2013 season in fine fashion with a victory in his first race this year, the 198.8km opening stage of the Volta ao Algarve. Tiago Machado (RadioShack Leopard) finished in second, followed by Theo Bos (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) in third.

Machado had jumped from the peloton with one kilometre to go and was joined by Martens. The duo just narrowly held off the charge of the peloton on the slight descent to the finish with Martens outsprinting Machado for the win. Martens' teammate Theo Bos took the field sprint for third and was credited with the same finishing time as the leading duo.

"I am not a guy who wins a lot of races," said Martens. "We have done great as a team. I was in front of the bunch when Machado jumped. Tom Leezer with Theo Bos on his wheel were behind me to leave the gap. I knew the final 500 metres where downhill so I kept his wheel for my final jump."

Factoring in the finish line and intermediate sprint time bonuses, Martens leads general classification by four seconds over Machado and five seconds on Eduard Vorganov (Katusha).

The first break at the Volta ao Algarve formed quickly on the opening stage as Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), Sergio Paulinho (Saxo-Tinkoff), Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural), Marco Corti (Colombia) and Christopher Jones (UnitedHealthcare) jumped away after just five kilometres of racing.

The break was kept in check, however, never gaining more than three minutes on the peloton. With the stage expected to end in a bunch gallop, the teams of the sprinters made sure the escape wasn't a runaway with Omega Pharma-Quick Step doing much of the work at the front for Manxman Mark Cavendish.

Soon after Paulinho took the day's only KOM at kilometre 102, the escape's lead began to ever so steadily decrease. With 25 kilometres to go the break's lead had been halved to 1:30 and with a concerted effort from the peloton the five leaders were swept up just inside of 10 kilometres remaining. For their efforts off the front, Paulinho earned the mountains classification jersey while Vorganov leads the sprint classification.

Various lead-out trains tussled for position heading into the finale and their efforts were disrupted by a crash with 1.7 kilometres to go. Soon afterwards Machado jumped, followed by Martens, and the duo were able to capitalise on a chaotic endgame and dash the hopes of the sprinters.