Colombian overhauls Ineos teammate Pidcock to take overall title in Lagoa as Stefan Küng takes the stage win
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Martínez blitzed the course to win the general classification on the final day(Image credit: Nico VereeckenPNiSprintCyclingAgency2023)
Martínez takes home the yellow jersey after his final stage effort(Image credit: Tim de WaeleGetty Images)
Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) takes the plaudits for the stage win(Image credit: Tim de WaeleGetty Images)
Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-QuickStep) won the blue KOM jersey(Image credit: Tim de WaeleGetty Images)
Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost) took the green jersey(Image credit: Tim de WaeleGetty Images)
Dani Martínez races along to fourth on the stage and overall victory(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Stefan Kung blasts along the stage 5 course to the stage win(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) couldn't hold on to the yellow jersey in the final time trial(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Pidcock recovers after his effort(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Michael Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) during the stage 5 time trial(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
World time trial champion Tobias Foss (Jumbo-Visma) powering along(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Italian TT champion Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) laying down the power(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Remi Cavagna (Soudal-QuickStep) set a quick time on stage 5(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Dutch TT champion Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) during his effort(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Simon Pellaud (Tudor) tackles a hill in Carvoeiro during the final TT(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Hugo Hofstetter (Arkea-Samsic) starts a climb during the time trial(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) blasts along the flat(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Warren Barguil (Arkea-Samsic) during the final stage time trial(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) during stage 5(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal-QuickStep) raced to third overall(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) during his time trial effort(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Dani Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers) shows that consistent performance pays off after a solid time trial performance in the finale of the Volta ao Algarve on Sunday launched him into overall victory. The Colombian finished third on the 24.4km course, which was enough to claim the overall title by two seconds ahead of teammate Filippo Ganna.
Stefan Küng (Groupama FDJ) won the stage, looking in fine TT form and clocking a 29:34 on the somewhat technical course to beat Rémi Cavagna (Soudal Quickstep), who finished four seconds down on the Swiss rider.
Wearing the Italian colours as national TT champ, Ganna claimed third place, 10 seconds back on Küng, while yellow jersey wearer Tom Pidcock finished in 19th place at 1:27 down on Küng to finish seventh overall.
"This morning, everyone on the team said, 'okay, Filippo is number one for GC.' Day by day, I was feeling better, but today was a surprise for me," Martínez said after the finish.
Küng, meanwhile, said he knew it would be a close-run thing for the win, but added that he liked the Lagoa course.
"It feels very nice (to take the win)," he said. "I knew this course suited me. I was feeling good. I had power until the end, but I also knew it was going to be close.
"It's really nice to take the victory and also the first victory of the season for our team. We worked a lot over the winter on our TT position, so a big thanks to my performance team and my mechanic. Without the team, it's not possible to win here.
"For me, I really like this course. The rhythm is always changing. You have to push on all the time. I really like that when you have to change rhythm left and right. This course suits me well."
Stefan Küng powered to stage victory in Lagoa (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
How it unfolded
The skies were grey with a slight drizzle in the air during the finale stage of the Volta ao Algarve. The time trial was set to be the GC decider, and with just a minute separating the top 10 overall, the chance for a classification shake-up seemed imminent.
In the earlier wave of riders, Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-QuickStep) was the first rider to occupy the hot seat for a lengthy period of time, clocking a 31:00 flat on the 24.4km course around Lagoa.
Asgreen powered through the first and second intermediate checkpoints and set times that stood for about 20 minutes until Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe) bettered the Dane by to seconds.
It didn't take long for Rémi Cavagna (Soudal-QuickStep) to threaten Politt's time, along with Küng, who went across the first two intermediate checks with the fastest time, but the third check, went to Cavagna.
The French time trial specialist found himself briefly at the top of the leaderboard with a time of 29.38, but was quickly ousted by Küng, who took four seconds off Cavagna's finishing time.
All eyes were on Ganna to storm into action. The Italian had a solid performance, but it wasn't quite enough to take top honors at the end of the day. Still, the Ineos Grenadiers rider jumped from 10th to second overall, finishing just outside the top step by a mere two seconds behind his teammate Dani Martínez.
Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal-Quickstep) had an impressive ride to hang onto third place overall. The Belgian ended up seventh on the stage, 49 seconds back on Küng.
Yellow jersey Tom Pidcock knew he had a big task ahead of him to hang onto yellow and was pushed to show his cyclocross abilities when he lost control around a corner, flew up onto a dirt berm, but still managed to hold the bike up. He ended up 19th on the day, sliding down to seventh overall on GC and out of contention.
A former professional and two-time cyclo-cross US national champion, Beard is also an award-winning journalist and cycling commentator. Since leaving competition, she has written for several major cycling media outlets, worked as media director for major US stage races and consulted with men's and women's professional cycling teams.
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