Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta 2024 Stage 2

February 15, 2024 Clouds rolled back in, guaranteeing no day at the beach resort because this is the first of two mountain stages this week in Portugal. The break rolled away quickly, mostly consisting of Portuguese domestic teams with the exception of Astana and Uno-X Mobility. At 74KM remaining, two Uno-X Mobility riders went clear, one of which being their GC hope, Andreas Leknessund. They were able to bridge within 12KM and the gap looked to be around two and half minutes. The peloton seemed in relative calm, led by Soudal Quick-Step. The leaders still had nearly three minutes at 35KM as Jonas Abrahamsen was the machine pulling the group along. At 22KM from the finish, it was job done for Abrahamsen as the pace seemed to increase simultaneously in the lead and main groups. Leknessund went solo halfway through the second to last climb but at the foot of Alto da Fóia, it was becoming clear that Leknessund wasn't going to make it. James Knox of Soudal Quick-Step set the pace, catching Leknessund and blowing riders out the back, one by one. With 2KM to go, there were about 25 riders left. At the red kite, Mikel Landa took over and riders really were struggling with the speed and the buffeting wind. At 350M, Remco Evenepoel started his sprint but Dani Martinez was too strong, holding his sprint to the line and winning the stage ahead of Evenepoel.