Volta ao Algarve: David Gaudu wins crash-marred stage 2 atop Alto da Foia

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David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) missed a crash in the final 200 metres on the uphill finish at Fóia and won stage 2 of the Volta ao Algarve. 

A bunch sprint formed in the final kilometre, with Tobias Foss (Jumbo-Visma) and Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe) bumping shoulders and going down short of the finish, which gave daylight to Gaudu for his first victory of the season. 

Trailing two seconds later was Samuele Battistella (Astana Qazaqstan) in second and then Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) in third.

The race leader’s yellow jersey moved from the shoulders of Wednesday’s winner Fabio Jakobsen (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) to Gaudu, while Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) used his fourth-place finish on stage 2 to move one second back in the GC, tied on time with Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) in third.

There are a total of six riders within one second of Gaudu. What started as a slow-motion sprint in the final kilometre of the mountaintop finish quickly turned to surprise chaos as Foss and Higuita collided on the outside of a sweeping corner, both riders walking across the finish line with their bikes, with provisional results in 21st and 19th spots, respectively.

"I felt really good today and the team positioned me well before the last climb. I wanted to wait as long as possible with my sprint because of the wind," Higuita in a team statement. 

"In the end I have been in a perfect position and was overtaking on the left side. I thought I can grab the win, but Foss touched me and unfortunately, I wasn’t able to avoid a crash end went down. That’s really frustrating as I judged my effort perfectly.“

The splaying of the two bikes and bodies across most of the road interrupted what was set up to be an explosive surge from a dozen riders. Evenepoel, who won this same stage 2 finish in 2020, had to avoid the crash and finished sixth, behind McNulty and fifth-placed Daniel Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers). 

Meanwhile, Gaudu was nevertheless advancing with speed and sailed clear to win by a distance.

“I wanted to be at the front, I know the sprint is fast,” Gaudu said after the stage victory put him in an unexpected overall race lead. 

“I waited, waited, and saw they were going wide in the last corner. I tried to turn inside as much as possible and managed to avoid the crash to my left. I was launched and I was able to cross the line first. I was in front when the crash happened, so I think I still would have won anyway."

How it unfolded

The 182.4km route for stage 2 headed inland from the blue waters surrounding Albufeira to Fóia, the highest point in the Algarve, in the municipality of Monchique. Three classified climbs highlighted the first mountain day with points on offer at Pomba, Picota and the mountaintop finish at Alto da Foia. 

The top of Picota crested just 7.4 kilometers from the bottom of Fóia, which then led 7.1km with an average grade of 6.8 per cent to the finish.

Blue skies matched the blue waters in Albufeira, where five riders created the early break and set off for the first intermedia sprint just 24km away: Unai Iribar (Euskaltel-Euskadi), César Martingil (Rádio Popular-Paredes-Boavista), Nickolas Zukowsky (Human Powered Health), João Matias (Tavfer-Mortágua-Ovos Matinados) and Tomas Contte (Aviludo-Louletano-Loulé Concelho).

The eager group had formed a gap of close to three minutes after a dozen kilometres. Martingil took top points for the sprint in Salir, followed by Matias and Contte. The quintet rolled along the lumpy route for another 50km before hitting the base of the Pomba, with 2:30 in hand.

Cresting the third-category Pomba, 13.5km in length, Contte led the small group across the top, with Matias in second and then Martingil. Behind, the peloton had only closed the gap by 10 seconds, pulled by QuickStep-AlphaVinyl, who had the leader's jersey on the shoulders of Jakobsen. The team were down one rider from the start, with Tim Declercq having to abandon due to an illness. 

With under 60km to go, on the rollers beyond the opening climb, loose gravel caused several riders to hit the ground in a right-hand corner, including Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels p/b KTM) and Lars van den Berg (Groupama-FDJ) from a group of 10. A few kilometres later a smaller group hit the tarmac. From the crashes two abandoned - Van den Berg and Ion Izaguirre (Cofidis).

The long descent toward the intermediate sprint in Rasmalho saw the breakaway’s gap reeled down in a similar fashion as the peloton closed to 1:10. Martingil scored the intermediate sprint points then was the first in the fivesome to struggle and fade from the front. All the front riders were absorbed into the full bunch with 28.5km to go. 

Leading the charge for the short 10km launchpad to the double ascents of the category-2 Picota and category-1 Fóia to the finish were Alpecin-Fenix, as well as Groupama-FDJ, QuickStep-AlphaVinyl and Arkéa-Samsic. At 22.4km to go, Iribar took off again for a futile attempt to open a gap, but a counter by veteran Delio Fernández ((Atum General-Tavira-Maria Nova Hotel) gave him some daylight in front of the peloton for a couple of kilometres.

Closing toward the eight per cent gradient among the evergreen trees of the twisting category-2 climb, Ineos Grenadiers put six on the front, led by Geraint Thomas, Ben Tulett and Jonathan Castroviejo, with the peloton being reduced to about 40 riders.

The action for the final 7.5km climb of the Alto da Foia began with a steep pitch of 9.3 per cent with Ineos still at the front and Groupama-FDJ keeping pace. After a stealth, almost-accidental attack from Ineos' Dylan van Baarle, Louis Vervaeke (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) took up the pacemaking at the front for Evenepoel with just over 4km remaining and Foss on his wheel. 

The lead group had dwindled to 25 riders with no major attacks taking place half-way up the climb. Above the tree line and riding into a few light veils of clouds at the 1km kite, Frederico Igueiredo (Glassdrive Q8 Anicolor) was the first to attack and opened a small gap, but Ineos shut it down. 

Hayter then attacked from the trailing favourites with Battistella close by, but the duo would be passed in a resounding move by Gaudu just as the uphill crash took place.