"The first stage of the 51st Volta ao Algarve has been cancelled" - Race organisers react strongly to farcical finish
Cycling
In a complete and utter mess, the opening stage of the 2025 Volta ao Algarve descended into chaos in the finishing straight, with only a handful of riders actually crossing the line, whilst the rest of the peloton rode helplessly down the other side of the barriers.
Filippo Ganna crossed the line first, but it seems the victory may not go down as the 34th of his professional career. "The first stage of the 51st Volta ao Algarve has been cancelled," the race organisation has since posted on its official X (Twitter) account. "More information soon."
This decision has not gone down well with everyone. Familiar face on cycling Twitter Benji Naesen reacted fiercely to the races announcement in the replies. "Disgusting decision," the Belgian fumed.
As this is obviously a developing story, we'll do our best to keep you up to date if and when more news on the situation arrives!
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⚠️ A primeira etapa da 51.ª Volta ao Algarve foi anulada.
— Volta ao Algarve (@VoltAlgarve) February 19, 2025
Mais informações em breve.
Carrying it over the barriers from the wrong side so he could actually cross the finish line. Most riders who took a wrong turn did that to ensure they finished and got a time
Hey Mr Naesen, what should they do, a rerun? No-one was going to gain any advantage here, let Ganna keep his prize and title but omitting this stage from the tour is fine.
Result should be: Ganna wins and gets UCI points, bonus seconds, etc. for the stage win along with the others who finished going the correct way. Keep the rest of the peloton on the same time with the 3km rule.
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- Too much amatuer psychology. How about this: "he was never as good as when he had not suffered multiple career-threatening injuries." What is happening to him is what happened to Alaphilippe, Bernal, and others. You will notice that his two major peers -- MVDP and Mads - are both at their all time best. You will also note that neither is coming off of anything like the same last 18 months that Wout is. Go back to 2022, then roll the tape forward with Wout remaining healhty and one of them having had multiple traumatic falls. Odds are good he'd be at his dominant best and they would not.MidnightRider31-03-2025
- Raymond Poulidor, Alfredo Binda.... where do we stop. If you want to retitle it is Primoz Roglic the bestr rider never to win the tour in the last ten or 20 years then that might be betterslappers6631-03-2025
- Let me help you. Alfredo BindaUpHill31-03-2025
- He'll certainly last it and prob ride his own race, at the front 😁
leedorney31-03-2025 - Gaio Primus Caesar Roglus, Rome is waiting for you, Imperator :-)).
maria2024202431-03-2025 - And he probably wasn’t even at the limit ;-) Have to wonder how much Mads could catch up if he’d tune his physique to be as sharp as MVDPs’Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- Respect for giving Van Eetvelt credit there.Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- He’s already a star for me for HAVING complained about it, the recent trend having been, let them then try to take advantage by making them sign NDAs ;-)Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- Agreed, but if it was a radio thing then all the riders should have the same story and it would be easy to call anyone out. Kind of surprised this isn’t cleared up half officially afterwards, just like the Alaphilippe divorce, seems like once something spreads on the net it kind of gets accepted that everyone wants to have their own truth so no-one bothers to contest anything that’s verifiable anymore, we all just move on.Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- maybe. what makes that a LITTLE fishy is that they suddenly hit the gas and started hammering it. even mathieu, who i’ve never heard complain about ANYTHING (other than teenage girls waking him up and being spit on by belgians) was pretty hacked off about the race tactics after the split. i think he was upset for what his teammates had to do, not for the fact he ended up isolated as a result.OCexile31-03-2025