Volta ao Algarve: Thomas wins stage 3

Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) was the strongest time triallist at the Volta ao Algarve winning stage 3's 20.3km test in 24:09 and increasing his lead in the overall classification. Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) set the early benchmark and sat nervously in the hot seat until Thomas, the last rider of the day, stormed in 11 seconds faster. Stefan Küng (BMC) was third, 19 seconds slower than Thomas.

Thomas, who took the race lead after stage 2's climb to Fóia, is now 22 seconds ahead of his teammate and previous day’s winner Michal Kwiatkowski. Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), who finished fifth on the day, jumped from 17th to third overall and now sits 32 seconds back.

After the GC battle to the top of Fóia, the stage 3 time trial offered the first chance to make some separations in the top 10 of the overall classification. Thomas started the day leading the GC ahead of Jaime Roson (Movistar), while Kwiatkowski was in third place, Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) in fifth and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) sixth, but there were no time gaps between the top six men.

The time trial was set along the rolling terrain, 20.3km, around the city of Lagoa. The course started on a slight uphill, followed by a longer downhill an then hit the bigger rollers between six and 16.5km before a gentle decline to the finish line.

Campenaerts, the European champion, set the fastest time of 24:20 early in the stage. It paid off for him to ease into the time trial with a slightly slower start over the first section and then save his energy for the hillier second half.

Although Küng had faster check-point splits at 8:12 (7.2km) and 16:45 (14km), he had a slower finishing time, and only managed 24:28, sliding in behind Campenaerts.

Former four-time world champion Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin), who twice won the time trial and the overall title at Algarve, finished with an unusually slower time of 24:36. He also posted faster check-point splits than Campenaerts. He finished in sixth place on the day.

Another former world champion Vasil Kiryienka (Team Sky) finished with 24:59 and ninth place, which bumped him up to 10th place in GC. Kiryienka put in a strong effort on stage 2's climb to Fóia, attacking on the steeper slopes and setting up his teammates Kwiatkowski and Thomas for the stage win and GC.

It wasn't long before faster time splits checked in with Kwiatkowski blazing through the 7.2km mark with 8:05 followed by Thomas with 8:04. Kwiatkowski's time trial slowed slightly through the second time check, but he still managed to pull off a fast time of 24:31, for fourth place, which moved him into second overall behind Tomas.

Thomas maintained a strong second split, 14km in 16:26, and held that speed through the finish. A time of 24:09 bumped Campenaerts out of the hot seat and into second place in the stage results. The effort increased his overall lead to 22 seconds.

Other riders who had strong time trials and moved up in the overall were Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors), now fourth overall and Tejay van Garderen (BMC) in fifth. Mollema dropped to sixth and Roson to seventh and Dan Martin out of the top 10.

Volta ao Algarve continues on Saturday with a flatter stage 4 to Tavira, and then it’s back to into the hills for the decisive stage 5 finale atop Alto do Malhão.

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