Volta ao Algarve: Kwiatkowski solos to victory on stage 2

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Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) soloed to victory into Monchique, on stage 2 of the Volta ao Algarve on Thursday.

The Polish rider got away near the top of the final climb, crossed its summit alone with 6km to go, and time trialed to the finish six seconds ahead of chasers Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) and Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo). Kwiatkowski took the race lead too, with Costa now sitting in second overall at four seconds. Contador, a two-time Volta ao Algarve champion, holds third overall at 12 seconds.

"This victory is important for me," said Kwiatkowski. "I feel a lot more confident after winning in Majorca. I had a really good winter with no problems at all during my training. I did a lot of work on my climbing and I feel that I’ve improved a lot."

Kwiatkowski was familiar with the final ascent, climbed twice in stage 2 finale, but took his cues from riders more intimately acquainted with the day's course.

"I think we did this climb in Monchique two years ago," said Kwiatkowski. "When we got on it I remembered it. But Rui Costa clearly knew the course very well. When we were descending on the first loop I followed his wheel. When we went up the climb the final time on the second loop, I followed Alberto Contador when he made the first attack about 700 metres from the top. I just went through, got a gap and then went as hard as I could to the finish.

"We’ve got a great team here. I get support from Mark Cavendish, Tony Martin and all the guys. It’s a great feeling to have champions like those in front of me, helping me out. It was a good day for us. The team was supporting me from the very start of the stage and I’m really happy to win on the back of all that work."

Hilly finale tests GC contenders

After the comparatively flat opening day, stage 2 would be one for the climbers. Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) started the day as the race leader, although it was always going to be a challenge for him to retain it until the end of the day.

There was a distinctly French feel to the first break of the day with Arnaud Démare (FDJ.fr), Alexandre Pichot (Europcar) and Florian Senechal (Cofidis) getting away. The break breached the three-minute mark, but Lampre-Merida kept them under control.

With Démare only 10 seconds off Modolo’s lead, the Italian team were keen to keep the gap down. The day ended for the trio with over 90km still to go to the finish.

It wasn't long before another bunch of riders were off down the road. There was a touch of déjà vu as César Fonte (Radio Popular), Luis Afonso (Aluminios-Antarte) and Volter Pereira (Banco Bic-Carmin), escapees the previous day, all made it into the five-man break.

Fonte began the day a second off the general classification lead and, with bonus seconds still available, he had the leader's jersey in his sights. He was out of luck, though, and barely made it past 30 seconds before the break was absorbed into the peloton once again.

Tinkoff-Saxo joined Lampre at the front of the peloton, helping to make the pace, which proved too much for defending champion Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep). The German was dropped with 25km to go on the penultimate climb, as Pello Bilbao (Caja Rural) launched a solo attack. The Spaniard made a valiant effort, but succumbed to the inevitable with 16km to go.

As the riders reached the foot of the final climb, the jostling for position within the general classification teams began.

Kwiatkowski countered an attack by Contador near the top of the category-3 rated ascent and went clear over the summit. The Polish champion was eventually followed by a chase group comprised of Costa, Contador and Eduard Prades (OFM-Quinta Da Lixa), but it was too late for the trio and they couldn't close the gap built by Kwiatkowski.

With Kwiatkowski's abilities against the clock, he could put a little more time into his rivals on the short, 13.6km time trial stage tomorrow. He finished second overall to teammate Tony Martin in last year's Volta ao Algarve on the strength of his time trialing, but Kwiatkowski is expecting tough competition through to the final stage.

"I’ve already done this race a couple of times and I was second last year, but we will see how the time trial goes tomorrow and then we’ve got the Alto de Malhao, which is also going to be a difficult stage," said Kwiatkowski. "I will just have to give it all I’ve got on those two days and we’ll see what happens.

"Rui obviously knows the race very well and he’s super-motivated, as you could see yesterday when he finished second. I’m sure Contador has something to say as well. We’ve certainly not heard the last word from them."

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