Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek) said he came into the Volta ao Algarve with no idea of how he would fare in his first race back in nine months, but in his first summit finish of the season, regardless of where the bar was set, the Briton’s performance could hardly fail to impress.
After a fast and furious ascent of the category 1 Alto da Fóia where all eyes were on Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) as the Belgian sought to repeat his 2020 stage win on the Algarve’s toughest summit and the front peloton shredded to some 20 riders, Geoghegan Hart remained stubbornly ahead.
The British stage racer crossed the line in seventh place, just a few seconds down on stage winner Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe) and second-placed Evenepoel after the main group of contenders shattered almost in sight of the summit.
It was a sign of his underlying ambition, that even if his performance on the Fóia had gone well, a few minutes afterwards Geoghegan Hart first comments to the press were that he was a mite dissatisfied with his failure to get closer to the win.
"Maybe I’m a bit cross with myself a little bit, because I hesitated with the first goes, and I was there," he told a small group of journalists including Cylingnews after putting on a jacket on the drop down from the far side of the finish line and wrapping up against the unexpectedly bitter cold. "But then sometimes one or two wheels in that situation make such a big difference with the wind, because you’re left closing a meter here and there.
“I just missed a little bit in the final 500 metres to 200 metres to have the gas to really go. But it was a really nice job by the team all day and I was just really happy to make the final and feel good until the last 500 metres.”
For any rider, the first race of the season is something of a voyage in the dark, but after the Briton’s appalling crash in the Giro d'Italia last year, breaking his femur and facing nine months of rehabilitation, for Geoghegan Hart that was surely far more the case. So it was no surprise that he repeated his comments from December that there had been ‘no expectations or way to know’ about what he could or could not achieve on the 7km climb of Fóia.
“The training has been good, really good, and better than I expected but in terms of racing you never know how it’s going to transfer,” he pointed out.
“Yesterday [stage 1] I could tell that I would be all right, and I was feeling good. Normally on a stage like that, the first day of the year, it’s hard but I’m happy and I’ll try and have a good rest of the week.”
As for where he goes from here, having come through his first summit stage so well, Geoghegan Hart said he was simply satisfied with what he had achieved.
“I think that the [stage 4] TT will be hard for me, to be honest," he concluded, "but this was already a nice day and I’ll say a big thanks to the team later on and then move on.”
