Volta ao Algarve: Remco Evenepoel takes race lead with powerful stage 4 win

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Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep) smashed the stage 4 time trial at the Volta ao Algarve to notch up his first victory in the rainbow jersey of time trial world champion.

Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) put in a strong ride to take second place on the stage 16 seconds behind Evenepoel, while Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) was third.

Evenepoel snatched the leader's jersey from Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe), who finished 52 seconds down in eighth, and now has a 47-second lead in the general classification over the Colombian.

Jan Tratnik (Visma-Lease a Bike) finished only six seconds slower than Martínez to move into third in the general classification, moving ahead of teammate Sepp Kuss and Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe).

Evenepoel called his performance "a perfect time trial".

"I think from the start I had a pretty good feeling," he said. "I know this course pretty well, on Monday when we arrived from Figueres we did a good recon of this time trial. I did three laps, this morning I did three laps. I knew everything by heart, all the corners.

"It was very necessary as it was a pretty technical time trial, lots of speed bumps the course, bumps left and right, tight corners so you had to know where to take risk and where to not.

"I had perfect coaching from behind and I had perfect preparation this morning so we can say it was close to a perfect time trial, yes.

"Maybe it was a bit too much [technical] at a certain moment but I think it’s a very beautiful time trial. Alongside the Marina, it is very beautiful. I enjoyed every single metre of this course. To finish it off with a victory is even better."

He will now shift his focus to keeping the race lead during the final stage, which is another summit showdown on the Alto do Malhão.

"I think it will be all about defending and being smart and defending first place and try to go for a stage win. I think yellow jersey is more important, so I will try to defend that and we will see at the end of the day if there is another stage win or not."

How it unfolded

The 22.2km individual time trial was the first chance for Olympic contenders Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep) and Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) to test themselves on the time trial bike this season.

On the undulating loop from Albufeira, American Keegan Swirbul (Efapel) set the fastest early time but was soon eclipsed by Edward Theuns (Lidl-Trek) and then Van Aert's teammate Julien Vermote.

As the next block of riders came through, the lead changed rapidly until Arthur Kluckers (Tudor) took the lead. He was pushed out of the hot seat by young Mexican sensation Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates).

Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) made it a third North American on the hot seat when he came through 21 seconds quicker than Del Toro and after Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) finished 12 seconds slower, remained atop the standings.

The American's hopes were buoyed when Van Aert came through in a distant eighth, 43 seconds behind.

Check after check had Evenepoel opening up more time over Martínez and he flew home to victory as his Colombian struggled through the final kilometres.

Results

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