"I made a small mistake" - Remco Evenepoel disappointed to miss out on victory after Soudal - Quick-Step's sacrifice

Soudal - Quick-Step have put on a lot of work this afternoon at the Volta ao Algarve and almost succeeded. However after so much work, it was a disappointment for Remco Evenepoel to come away only with a second place.

"The team has shown how strong we are, so we can be proud of that. They've been checking all day. It's a pity that I couldn't finish it because there was someone better," Evenepoel told Cyclingpro.net. "The headwind surprised me a bit. We thought about crosswinds. In the end we just stayed out of trouble all day, including on the descents. I'm very happy with that, I started the week well with this second place. There are still days to come."

The Belgian only had to ride in the wheels until 300 meters to go as Mattia Cattaneo, James Knox and Mikel Landa did an amazing work to eat through the peloton. No-one could launch an effective attack and the stage came down to a sprint. Ordinarily Evenepoel would've won, but there was one rider who matched him today - and went above.

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"I think everything went well. However, second place was not the best possible result. Maybe I made a small mistake by going too early, so my plan was to surprise everyone a little bit. That way I could beat them to the wind, but if there's someone faster," he adds. Daniel Martínez, the defending champion, outsprinted him to the summit of the climb and took over the race lead. "I finished in the same time, so we can be happy. We would have liked to win the stage, but you can't get everything to order."