Gerben Thijssen (Intermarché-Wanty) notched up his second win of the new season, taking out a messy bunch sprint on the opening stage of the Volta ao Algarve in Lagos.
After his victory in Trofeo Palma last month, Thijssen showed patience and poise in what was a hectic final kilometre. He waited patiently until the very last moment into the headwind and won by a clear bike length over Marijn Van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost).
Jordi Meeus (Bora-Hansgrohe) powered to third ahead of Arnaud Démare (Arkéa-Samsic).
"Last year, I didn't have too good of a start to the season, so this year it was so important to get a good start, and I already have two wins had the two wins," Thijssen said.
"It's quite unbelievable and also on this level. It proves that I worked really hard this winter to be in this shape, and you see how the hard work pays off."
A stiff headwind kept the fireworks until very late, with the bunch riding tempo until 5km to go.
The final kilometres saw a crash from Bora-Hansgrohe's Marco Haller and a split in the bunch, but Intermarché-Wanty had already taken the initiative with 5km to go, and Thijssen was already well positioned.
"It was quite hard - we had a block headwind in the last 15 kilometres, then we had the little kicker with 2k to go - it was quite hard for me, but I knew if I could get on the top of that, I'm in a good position, and I think I can win.
"The team did a really amazing job today. I saw all six guys with me the whole day, fighting for me, riding on the front controlling the race. The team worked so really hard for this victory."
Thijssen will head into the mountain stage to the Alto da Fóia in the leader's jersey but expects to pass the GC responsibilities onto teammate Rune Herregodts.
The coming day will more likely be a showdown between Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep), who finished the stage well down in the mayhem, and other favourites like Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe), Geraint Thomas, Thymen Arensman and Tom Pidcock (Ineos), Wout van Aert and Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek).
How it unfolded
The Volta ao Algarve 2024 got underway in Portimão on a blustery day with a chance of rain. It took almost 10 kilometres for a breakaway to go clear, but when it did, there were seven riders
Tobias Bayer (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was the only WorldTour rider in the bunch with Continental locals Fábio Costa (ABTF Betão-Feirense), Tomas Contte (Aviludo-Louletano-Loulé Concelho), Diogo Narciso (Credibom-La Alumínos-Marcos Car), Noah Campos (Kelly-Simoldes-Udo), César Fonte (Radio Popular-Paredes-Boavista) and Gonçalo Amado (Tavfer-Ovos Matinados-Mortágua).
Contte led the breakaway over the two classified climbs of the day, the category 4 Aldeia dos Matos and category 3 Nave, to claim the first mountains jersey.
On the second climb, Narciso dropped but got back, but Campos was unable to do the same as the gap, which had been steady for most of the stage around 3:30, give or take a few seconds, began to fall.
With the peloton bringing them to within 40 seconds with 52km to go, Bayer launched a solo attack that would work for 20 kilometres as he stretched the lead to two minutes.
Contte and Fonte chased for a while but were eventually reeled in with 39km to go.
Bayer's gap was coming down when a massive crash with 28km to go took down Tiesj Benoot (Visma-Lease a Bike) and previous breakaway rider Amado, who appeared to be clutching his wrist, among many others. Most of the peloton got back up, but the chasing group was briefly shattered.
With Wout van Aert also delayed, the peloton eased up to let the various chasers rejoin, but even so, Bayer's gap was down to 30 seconds as the race headed into the wind along the coast with 25km to go.
In the slightly lumpy run-in to the final 10km, there was a detente in the peloton with riders pointing out speed bumps, joking and laughing, and riding tempo six-wide on the two-lane road.
The pace finally picked up as the race headed into the final 5km, with Intermarché-Wanty coming forward to challenge DSM-Firmenich-PostNL and Tudor. But Arkéa-Samsic surged on an uphill section, coming into 2km to go for Démare, trying to burn off the other sprinters.
The bunch split when a crash took out Marco Haller (Bora-Hansgrohe), leaving a reduced group to contest the sprint where Intermarché delivered Thijssen to the victory.
Results
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