Place Name: Praceta João Henrique Santos
Address: Praceta João Henrique Santos 4, 8005-072 Faro, Faro, Portugal
Details: February 22, 2025
The 175KM run from Albufeira to Faro takes on four categorized climbs, including the Alto do Malhāo, totaling 2,000M of elevation gain but the flat run to the finish should see a bunch come in together.
A strong group of four riders made the break including Warre Vangheluwe of Soudal Quickstep, Johan Jacobs of Groupama-FDJ, Gorka Sorarrain of Caja Rural Seguros RGA, and German Nicolás Tivani of Aviludo-Louletano-Loulé. A chasing duo of Vlad Van Mechelen and Afonso Eulálio from Bahrain Victorious were 2 minutes behind the main break and Intermarché-Wanty and EF-Education EasyPost were controlling in the peloton for a sprint, 3 minutes behind the main break with 68KM to go. Van Mechelen and Eulálio could not make it across and pulled the plug to go back to the bunch with 54KM to go.
A few more teams added riders to the chase including Visma-Lease a Bike, Lotto, and Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe. The gap was just 25 seconds over the top of the penultimate climb of Santa Barbara with 24KM to go. Visma-Lease a Bike were pushing on to thin out the bunch of any fast men in hopes of giving Wout van Aert a smoother run at the line. The break were caught right at the top of the short final climb with 18KM to go but the peloton was mainly intact.
Teams got organized after the descent with 6KM to go through the outskirts of Faro, all to stay safe near the front. It was an all out sprint to the last corner, a roundabout taken at three quarters of the way around, 600M from the line. Intermarché-Wanty and EF-Education Easy Post were the first to exit the roundabout and they hit the 400M drag uphill to the line. Arnaud De Lie of Lotto made the first move and quickly got into the lead. Milan Fretin of Cofidis came up and passed De Lie who was fading at 150M to go. Fretin continued his push for the line but Jordi Meeus of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe and Filippo Ganna of Ineos were each making a run. Fretin had enough to make a final push for the line to take the win, his second of the season. Meeus took second with Ganna overtaking De Lie for third.
Tags: Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta, 2025, February, Stage 4, Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta 2025, Albufeira, Faro, Warre Vangheluwe, Johan Jacobs, Gorka Sorarrain, German Nicolás Tivani, Vlad Van Mechelen, Afonso Eulálio, Arnaud De Lie, Milan Fretin, Jordi Meeus, Filippo Ganna