February 20, 2026
It's time trial day at the Volta ao Algarve. The riders will face a pure ITT course that is almost entirely flat. The 19KM race starts and finishes in Vilamoura, a luxury coastal resort in the municipality of Loulé. The GC is still tight after yesterday's finish atop Alto da Fóia and we'll likely see quite a bit of shifting by days' end. We won't be looking at just the GC guys today however. The likes of Stefan Küng of Tudor Pro Cycling will want to show out for his new team. Jakob Söderqvist of Lidl-Trek and Filippo Ganna of Ineos are also certainly names to watch as the day progresses.
Race Summary
Conditions were perfect with light wind and clear blue skies and temperatures warm enough for tourists to sit poolside. The early benchmark was set by the Swedish ITT Champion, Jakob Söderqvist of Lidl-Trek, as he finished with a time of 22 minutes 1 second. It wouldn't stand for too long though because Filippo Ganna of Ineos hit the line 7 seconds quicker and took over the hot seat. Stefan Küng of Tudor Pro Cycling took provisional third at 28 seconds and expressed disappointment with result in his post-race interview.
Brandon McNulty of UAE-XRG was out of the GC hunt at the start of the day but was certainly a contender for the stage. He unfortunately had a mechanical issue or a puncture halfway into his ride and was forced to get a bike change, taking him out of the running for the stage. The first rider to disrupt the top three was Thymen Arensman of Ineos who came in at 22 seconds for provisional third place. Ineos continued to stack riders near the top with a fourth place for Kévin Vauquelin at 24 seconds.
As the top GC riders set off, all eyes were on the intermediate checks. Juan Ayuso of Lidl-Trek set the fastest time by 1 second on Ganna with Paul Seixas of Decathlon CMA CGM in third at 5 seconds. João Almeida of UAE-XRG was much further adrift at 21 seconds. Other riders like Matthew Riccitello and Oscar Onley were way out of the picture and losing their GC spots.
At the finish, Oscar Onley of Ineos continued to struggle and came home more than 1 minute down. Almeida was next in at 42 seconds, extending his losses from the first half of the race. Seixas came in and set the new provisional third best time, just 12 seconds down on Ganna. The last man out on course was Ayuso and he was storming to the line. The clock ticked from green to red but only in the last 50M. Ayuso hit the line 6 seconds down which was good enough for second on the day.
After Ayuso came in, the times were sorted and the win was officially awarded to Ganna with a speed of 53.465KM/HR. Ayuso was second at 6 seconds with Söderqvist in third at 8 seconds. As expected, the GC was turned around but the one constant was Ayuso in the race lead. The Spaniard now sits 7 seconds ahead of Seixas and 44 seconds clear of Almeida with one sprint friendly day and one hilly day remaining.