Volta ao Algarve: Dan Martin climbs to stage 2 victory

Daniel Martin (Quick-Step Floors) took over the lead of the Volta ao Algarve from his teammate Fernando Gaviria atop the Alto da Foia. The Irishman locked horns with LottoNl-Jumbo's up-and-coming Slovenian climber Primoz Roglic, and just barely managed to come away with the stage win.

Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) held on for third at 20 seconds, 13 seconds ahead of the chasing group led by local rider Amaro Antunes (W52/FC Porto).

Martin now leads the general classification over Roglic, with Kwiatkowski in third.

After his Quick-Step teammates had delivered him with impressive force to the lead on the final climb, Martin's first words in the post-race interview were fittingly a tribute to the team.

"It really was incredible teamwork, we rode a perfect race, and that let me win the race today," Martin said.

Whether his 26-second lead over Kwiatkowski, arguably the stronger time triallist, will be enough to hold onto the overall lead in tomorrow's test remains to be seen.

"I'll do my best, and we'll see the results," Martin said. "For me, it was important to win a stage, it's good for the confidence in the next races. After winning yesterday the pressure was off, but it's always nice to win a race. As a team, we have 12 victories for the season. We've had a strong start.

"For the time trial, I've worked a lot on my position. Of course, there are other guys stronger than me, but I'm motivated."

How it happened

The second stage of the Volta ao Algarve started under sunny skies and pleasant temperatures that inspired a rapid-fire succession of attacks in the first kilometers. The breakaway was quickly established behind the motor of Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo), Kenneth Vanbilsen (Cofidis), Igor Boev (Gazprom-RusVelo), Brian van Goethem (Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij), Adam de Vos (Rally Cycling), Luís Gomes and Daniel Sánchez (RP-Boavista).

It took him the better part of 15km to make it, but João Matias (LA Alumínios-Metalusa BlackJack) bridged to the move to make it an even eight riders up front.

The peloton kept the move in check, knowing that the final 60km would be important for the overall classification. Quick-Step Floors did most of the work with race leader Fernando Gaviria tucked in the train. The breakaway's lead never got much over four minutes, and then steadily dropped before the first category 3 climb, 128km into the 189.3km stage.

Mountains leader De Vos bagged the maximum points atop the Eirinha ascent, but the gap to the peloton was just over a minute. Theuns, seeing an opportunity on the undulating plateau that followed, attacked his companions and spent more than 20km alone out front, but was reeled in with 38km to go.

Lotto Soudal led the peloton at the intermediate sprint with 30km to go, with Tony Gallopin taking the points ahead of teammate Andre Greipel.

Quick-Step kept control over the final two climbs, with Enric Mas leading over the category 2 Alto da Pomba, and then Zdenek Stybar putting in such a blistering pace on the base of the Alto da Foia, with Dan Martin and Mas, that they immediately reduced the leading group to five riders, with only Primoz Roglic (LottoNl-Jumbo) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) aboard.

They couldn't quite maintain the pace, and as a large group started to bring them back, Roglic attacked, with Martin and Kwiatkowski joining along. Amaro Antunes (W52/FC Porto) bridged the trio with 5km to go.

A surge from Roglic and Martin with 4km to go distanced Kwiatkowski and Antunes.

Kwiatkowski continued to dangle in no man's land, as Antunes followed a move from Movistar's Jonathan Castroviejo to bring the Team Sky rider back.

Up ahead, Martin and Roglic were furiously attacking each other in the final 2km, but the pair was evenly matched. It came down to a sprint, and Martin narrowly had the edge.

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