Remco Evenepoel: " I felt on the climb that it wasn’t hard enough to really force something"

As the Volta ao Algarve arrived at it's highest point of the race, the main favourites decided to stick together in what was a relatively calm ascent to the Alto da Fóia. Remco Evenepoel just barely managed to escape a crash from Sergio Higuita and Tobias Foss, the Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team rider finished the stage in sixth place and is still sitting as one of the main favourites for the race win.

“The team was great today and protected me the entire stage. I felt on the climb that it wasn’t hard enough to really force something, so I chose to remain well-placed to catch as less wind as possible, as there was headwind. I just hoped to arrive in the first group and that was what I did in what proved to be a hectic finale," he said in a post-race interview. Despite not being visible, the young Belgian mentioned a headwind as the possible reason to the lack of agressiveness. Only an attack by Frederico Figueiredo stirred up the group in it's final kilometer, before INEOS leadout a large group sprint up the mountain, eventually won by David Gaudu.

Evenepoel completed: "I felt good all day and hope to have the same legs or even better on Saturday." Although he has kept everyone under control, he has finished the stage with no advantage over Brandon McNulty and Ethan Hayter who are set to be his biggest rivals, and was lucky to have Stefan Küng loose time on the opening day or he'd be a big threat aswell for the overall after a brilliant ascent by the Swiss today.