Place Name: 8550-274
Address: 8550-274, Monchique, Faro, Portugal
Details: February 20, 2025
After a disappointing and frustrating finish yesterday, the riders are back for a second stage in hopes of actually getting results. It's a difficult stage that could see some time gaps. At 177KM, the riders skirt the foothills before heading inland through Picota where they take on five categorized climbs including the finish atop Alto da Fóia from a more difficult side than previous editions, totalling 2,700M of elevation gain.
Ten riders put yesterday's troubles behind them and got up the road for a good day out. Only Tobias Bayer of Alpecin-Deceuninck, Brent Van Moer of Lotto, André Carvalho of Efapel Cycling, Hugo Nunes of Credibom, German Nicolás Tivani of Aviludo-Louletano-Loulé remained with 60KM to go. Their lead was 4 minutes and were being chased by Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe and Visma-Lease a Bike. With 40KM to go, the road got steep on the Marmelete climb and Visma-Lease a Bike stared to put on some pressure. Tivani was dropped but the four remaining leaders went over the top 4KM later with just 1 minute 10 seconds on the bunch.
There was a big fight to get into position through the town of Monchique, not only for the descent leading to the Pomba climb but also for the potential of bonus seconds at the Intermediate Sprint. Bayer led the break over the Sprint point followed by Moer and Carvalho which left nothing for the peloton who came by just 14 seconds later. The three remaining breakaway riders were caught with 21KM to go as the bunch started the fast pedaling descent down to the turn onto Pomba, a 4KM long climb that averages 7.5% but goes to 10% near the top.
Ineos led onto Pomba with 15KM to go but the bottom of the descent was tricky and many teams lost their organization. Romain Bardet of Picnic-PostNL was the first attacker but Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe were attentive and quickly brought him to heel. The pace was hard but not terminal and about 25 riders went over the top of Pomba together.
After a short 3KM descent, the race hit the 8.5KM climb of Alto da Fóia. Laurens De Plus of Ineos, Ben Tulett of Visma-Lease a Bike, Neilson Powless of EF-Education EasyPost, and Rémy Rochas of Groupama-FDJ chipped off the peloton at the bottom. There were not many teammates left in the bunch to do the chasing which forced Jan Christen of UAE-XRG and Luca Vergallito of Alpecin-Deceuninck to attack and bridge up to make six in the lead with 6KM to go. A steep section between 5.5 and 5KM to go dispatched Tulett and Rochas.
Christen put in a big attack with 2KM to go, but the four were back together 500M later. Behind, Jonas Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike attacked at the same point under the 2KM banner as Christen and made of group consisting of João Almeida and António Morgado of UAE-XRG, Tao Geoghegan Hart of Lidl-Trek, Primož Roglič of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, and Bardet. Vingegaard could not make a gap on the others and the pace slowed. He picked it back up and had the leaders within 15 seconds but Christen made another explosive attack from the front which cracked Powless and Vergallito. De Plus kept fighting but the race was rushing up from behind. Almeida stormed passed and caught Christen just as the Swiss rider crossed the line to make a 1-2 for UAE-XRG ahead of Almeida. De Plus hung on for third. The top 15 on the stage were all within 19 seconds so there is still plenty to play for but UAE-XRG really showed their strength and depth which could make it difficult for the other for the rest of the race.
Tags: Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta, 2025, February, Stage 2, Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta 2025, Lagoa, Alto da Fóia, Tobias Bayer, Brent Van Moer, André Carvalho, Hugo Nunes, German Nicolás Tivani, Romain Bardet, Laurens De Plus, Ben Tulett, Neilson Powless, Rémy Rochas, Jan Christen, Luca Vergallito, Jonas Vingegaard, João Almeida, António Morgado, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Primož Roglič