February 18, 2026
There are three GC days in this edition of the Volta ao Algarve but today isn’t one of them. There are two climbs on the route between Vila Real de Santo António and Tavira but neither are particularly challenging and last one, Faz Fato, tops out nearly 45KM from the finish. 20KM later in Vila Real Santo Antonio, the riders will arrive at the Golden Kilometer with bonus seconds on offer. The finish in Tavira is traditionally a sprint with Jordi Meeus and Wout van Aert winning in recent years.
Highlighted Riders
Sprinters to watch this week: Paul Magnier, Arne Marit, Jordi Meeus, Jasper Philipsen, Marijn van den Berg, Pavel Bittner, Arnaud De Lie, Matteo Moschetti
GC Riders to watch this week: Brandon McNulty, João Almeida, Juan Ayuso, Florian Lipowitz, Paul Seixas, Matthew Riccitello, Oscar Onley, Jarno Widar
Race Summary
A relatively large group got away early and they contested the first KOM halfway through the 184KM stage. With 60KM to go, the group of nine riders had just 1 minute 5 seconds on the peloton. The break consisted of Noah Campos of Tavira-Crédito Agrícola, Enzo Leijnse of Anicolor-Campicarn, Tomas Contte of Aviludo-Louletano-Loulé, Bruno Silva of Tavfer-Ovos Matinados-Mortágua, João Silva of Feira dos Sofás-Boavista, Diogo Narciso of Credibom-LA Alumínios-Marcos Car, Viacheslav Ivanov of Feirense-Beeceler, and André Ribeiro and José Miguel Moreira of GI Group Holding-Simoldes-UDO. Through a roundabout with 58KM to go, João Silva took the right-left a bit too quick and crashed out of the front group leaving eight riders to hold off the bunch.
In the peloton, Alpecin-Premier Tech and Soudal Quickstep were sharing the work load and had the break as close as 15 seconds. They took their foot off the gas to allow the gap to grow a bit but not before Hugo Nunes of Credibom-LA Alumínios-Marcos Car leapt from the peloton at the base of the Faz Fato. Further up the road, Leijnse, Ivanov, and Contte showed to be the strongest riders in the break and it was Contte who took maximum points at the top with 45KM to go with a lead of about 1 minute on the peloton. Three riders became six near the bottom of the descent with 36KM to go as Ribeiro, Moreira, and Nunes joined the front of the race.
Nunes attacked the break and went solo on the approach to the Golden Kilometer. He took the first two sprints in the Golden Kilometer but behind, the peloton was charging and it was Jan Tratnik of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe who won the final sprint to take 3 bonus seconds. The bunch reached the Atlantic Ocean in Monte Gordo with 21KM to go and had to contend with a block headwind as they turned South towards Tavira. With the headwind, there was no will to kick off the lead outs any earlier than necessary. It wasn't until 8KM to go before the speed started to pick up as positions were being threatened from teams pushing from the back.
Stress picked up to another level with 5KM to go. Soudal Quickstep, NSN Cycling, and EF-Education EasyPost were all fighting for the front. Picnic-PostNL were there battling as well but both Alpecin-Premier Tech and Lotto Intermarché were sitting patiently behind in the wheels. Lotto Intermarché made their first appearance with 2KM to go but the wind and speed was too much to overcome and their lead out was shuffled backwards. Soudal Quickstep led through 1KM to go and the final corner at 600M but it was Alpecin-Premier Tech who opened up out of the corner. Kaden Groves took over for Alpecin-Premier Tech but he looked unsure if he was supposed to sprint or lead out for Jasper Philipsen which caused a slight hesitation. A rush came from the left side by Paul Magnier of Soudal Quickstep. Philipsen tried to jump on but it was too late to recover the momentum. Magnier crossed the line first to open his account for 2026 which was also the first win for Soudal Quickstep this season. Jordi Meeus of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe and Pavel Bittner of Picnic-PostNL were both behind Magnier when he went and they followed the Frenchman in for second and third on the stage respectively.