Quite the finish at #VAlgarve2022. Glad to see everyone is okay. @ethan_hayter took third in the uphill sprint on stage two, with @danifmartinez96 just behind in fifth.
INEOS Grenadiers come up short of win at Algarve but have several cards to play for the GC
CyclingFriday, 18 February 2022 at 14:00
INEOS Grenadiers have perhaps came out of the second stage of the Volta ao Algarve with a positive balence. Although they were not capable of taking the win, they have four riders in the Top10 heading into the decisive weekend and saw two of their rivals take each other down at yesterday's finish.
The British team was the one to take responsabilities for most of the penultimate ascent to Picota, and then again around half of the final ascent to the Alto da Fóia. Sure enough, INEOS seemed to race to keep everything under control, and their ideal scenario came to life as a reduced bunch sprint became a reality but Ethan Hayter didn't have the legs to sneak a surprise win. It was a surprising result as Hayter didn't manage to perform at his level the recent Tour de la Provence after missing out on some weeks of training in the winter due to a Covid infection, but is now seemingly back to form as he battled for the stage win.
With the long time-trial ahead this saturday, this should put Hayter as the main card to play, as he seeks vengeance after crashing on last year's time-trial when in the yellow jersey, which he then lost on the final day to João Rodrigues, who is also absent from this year's edition due to Covid's lingering effects. Together with Hayter finished Daniel Martínez who's starting off his European season in good form after winning the time-trial national championships in Colombia, and Dylan van Baarle who just finished 11 seconds off the winner yesterday and will climb up the GC in the time-trial.
After taking a break from his short yet successful cyclocross season, Tom Pidcock was also in the leading group for most of the climb, loosing a bit of time at the end but only 17 seconds behind race leader David Gaudu. He won't surely be leading the team but will be a card to use on the final stage for sure. With Jonathan Castroviejo and Geraint Thomas both at the team's disposal, it is a certainty that the British team have the cards to play to raid the race on the final day, but before that is a time-trial where anything can happen, alongside today's sprint stage into Faro.
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