Pogacar-esque! António Morgado solos to stunning victory at Figueira Champions Classic 2025

The third edition of the Figueira Champions Classic in Portugal has ended in a stunning solo win for home rider, UAE Team Emirates - XRG's António Morgado, much to the delight of the crowd in attendance, adding a second victory to his palmares already in 2025. 

Nine riders had gone clear in an early breakaway move, but as the real fighting began heading into the final 50km or so, the peloton held the front of the race. On the second ascent of the Rua Parque Florestal, big name riders such as Julian Alaphilippe and Filippo Ganna launched moves off the front of the bunch, thinning out the lead group in the process. In fact, the attack of the latter proved a very big move, with the INEOS Grenadiers powerhouse managing to gain a 30 second advantage over the peloton by the time he reached the 30km to go marker. As Ganna began the final ascent of the Rua Parque Florestal, his lead was still dangling around the 25 second mark.

At 21km to go though, a counter-attack from Antonio Morgado caught and passed Ganna, with the Portuguese star of UAE Team Emirates - XRG clearly looking to impress on his home roads. Despite a counter from Mikkel Honore and Jon Agirre leading the chase behind, Morgado was looking incredibly strong out front, entering the final 10km with a lead of around 35 seconds. The chase wasn't all that cohesive behind either, with the main chase group struggling to even catch Honore and Agirre, before finally doing so inside the final 5km. As the flamme rouge neared though, Morgado began to look a little tired and the gap started to close. In the end though, there was no catching the runaway Portuguese as Morgado took victory ahead of Paul Magnier and Mathias Vacek.

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