Following Remco Evenepoel's show of strength and solo victory at the Figuera Champions Classic on Saturday, trying to beat the Belgian in this week’s Volta ao Algarve must have felt like a daunting prospect to any of his rivals. But at the Alto da Foia summit finish on Thursday, Dan Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe) was up to the task.
When Evenepoel attacked with just over 300 metres to go on the windswept Alto de Foia climb, the Colombian responded with equal power and then surged ahead in the grinding uphill sprint to the line.
Strategy and prior race knowledge had played a key part in his victory Martínez explained afterwards. He knew that he had to get to the final corner in first place and if he did so, he would almost certainly be the first to cross the finish line as well. And so it proved, with Martínez also taking a ten-second time bonus and the leader’s jersey.
Despite his stage victory, Martínez remained modest and recognised that while he might have won a battle on the Alto da Foia, other riders, including Evenepoel, were far more likely to claim overall victory at the Volta ao Algarve
“We’re not the favourite in this race. We have some strong opponents,” he said.
“We wanted to win the stage, with either Sergio Higuita or myself, I had good legs and I did a good sprint.” Martínez told Cyclingnews as he waited to go onto the podium on the windswept and misty Alto de Foia climb.
“I knew what the weather was like at the top and that I’d have to get into the last curve in first place, because if I did that, then it’d be very difficult to get back in front of me.”
With that knowledge in mind, Martínez said he knew that despite the presence of some other fast racers in the final pocket of contenders to remain with Remco like Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease A Bike) and Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), he knew that Evenepoel was the rider to watch.
“When he went for it, I’d been waiting for him to go,” he told Cyclingnews.
“But when he did I knew I had to get to that last corner in first place. So I made that my sprint, I went flat out for the corner, knowing that it’d be really difficult to get past afterwards.”
Despite his victory and taking the race leader’s yellow jersey, Martínez is pessimistic about the time he will lose in Saturday’s 22-kilometre time trial and so his overall chances. This is despite being crowned Colombian national time trial champion just a few weeks ago.
“There are some very big TT names here, although I am in good shape. The aim was to win a stage,” Martínez, currently four seconds ahead of Evenepoel, pointed out,
“We’ve done that. The time trial is very much in Remco’s favour but we’ll do our best.”
Last year Martínez won Cyclingnews unofficial award for “stealthiest stage race victory of 2023 so far’
We wrote: “Everyone was paying so much attention to his two teammates, Tom Pidcock defending the overall lead and Filippo Ganna roaring back from ninth, that no one seemed to notice the Colombian in the middle.”
Martínez went under the radar and was presumably under less pressure but finished fourth in the time trial to secure overall victory.
This time round, assuming nothing goes awry in Friday's flat stage, Martínez will be much more prominent on the race radar.
Evenepoel may remain the overall favourite but that was also true on the Alto do Foia. We should be ready for more surprises on Saturday.
