Probably the one factor to remorse about this yr’s Volta ao Algarve is that it’s only 5 days lengthy and never solely due to the sunshine and laid-back environment that predominate alongside the coastal cities and villages of Portugal’s ‘Deep South’ right now of yr. When it involves the race, there are nearly too many attention-grabbing and unpredictable plotlines to observe on this yr’s version.
Even with out 2019 Algarve winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) within the discipline, this yr’s version is by far probably the most ‘stacked’ of all of the early season stage races. Next week, a bunch of Spring Classics stars can be frantically honing their closing kind for fast-approaching Opening Weekend, rubbing shoulders as they achieve this with high GC contenders like double Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard and 2018 Tour champion Geraint Thomas.
Dig just a bit deeper and you will find a bunch of main time trial specialists, breakaway artists and sprinters. Last however not least, relating to Portugal’s high occasions and its longstanding house racing scene, Algarve is second solely in significance to the nationwide tour in August, which all the time provides yet one more attention-grabbing ingredient to the combination – and infrequently, like in 2021, the outright winner.
So Classics followers can be retaining an in depth on the performances of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad contenders of the calibre of Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), defending champion Jan Tratnik (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek) and up-and-coming Arnaud de Lie (Lotto). For all of them, Algarve is their closing warm-up race previous to Opening Weekend and for all its lack of cobbled climbs, its exceptionally diversified terrain makes Algarve a really dependable kind information. Witness Tratnik’s third place general final yr earlier than occurring to win six days later in Belgium.
At the identical time, the presence of a double Tour de France champion like Vingegaard will trigger heads to swivel in a special path. Making his debut in Algarve, Vingegaard historically likes to hit the bottom working in his first check of the season. Regardless of how he fares, in a yr the place his greatest aim is to place no much less a determine than Tadej Pogačar to the sword within the Tour de France, each alternative to see how Vingegaard is progressing in direction of the summer season can be keenly scrutinized.
While Algarve will supply an intriguing parallel pathway to Pogačar’s 2025 debut within the UAE Tour, held in the identical week, Vingegaard will face one other robust Slovenian challenger in Portugal as effectively: Primož Roglič.
Roglič’s presence in a race he received again in 2017 represents a a lot deeper problem for the sector that Vingegaard confronted in his first occasion of 2024, O Gran Camiño, on the alternative facet of the Iberian peninsula in Galicia. On high of that, different proficient stage racers like Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek), Romain Bardet (Picnic-PostNL) and João Almeida – combating on house soil for UAE Team Emirates – will present but extra factors of reference.
With such a strong line-up, it is exhausting to imagine not less than three beforehand key gamers can be lacking from the Algarve this yr. Three-times winner and defending champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) remains to be recovering from his accidents, whereas Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) is racing as a substitute within the Vuelta a Andalucia, which runs concurrently simply over the border in Spain. The 2023 Algarve winner and 2024 Giro d’Italia runner-up Dani Martinez (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) is as but not confirmed to begin, both.
Quite aside from the vacuum created by Evenepoel’s absence, the 2025 Volta ao Algarve route itself has three key modifications, of accelerating potential significance. Stage 2’s conventional ascent to the Foía summit end makes use of a a lot harder northerly strategy street, with segments ranging between 11% and 15%. Stage 4 is described by the race organisers as ‘the nice unknown’ and has three late categorised climbs on uncovered roads, the final a class 4, the Bordeira, with 17 kilometres to go. Stage 5 then incorporates the normal final summit end on the Alto do Malhão right into a 19-kilometre uphill time trial, a speciality that has by no means earlier than featured within the Volta ao Algarve.
Here, then, is Cyclingnews‘ tackle a number of the high favourites to observe on this yr’s Volta ao Algarve – which can solely be 5 days lengthy, however there are many alternatives, and protagonists, for lots to occur in a really brief time.
Jonas Vingegaard
Given Jonas Vingegaard has already stated he’ll be doing the Vuelta a España in addition to the Tour de France, the query of how he’ll deal with his early season is a tricky one to reply. Will Vingegaard look to hit the bottom working within the Algarve, like he has executed in different seasons, or will he choose to take a gentler strategy to the beginning of the yr, given his final a part of 2025 is so backloaded?
It’s price remembering that Algarve is a race he is by no means executed earlier than, too, so the Dane could also be considerably much less comfortable on roads which can be typically criticised for being excessively slim and technical, significantly on stage 1. In that case, teammates like Wout van Aert and Sepp Kuss – eighth final yr – are apparent selections to tackle GC tasks.
It’s a good wager that stage 2 and the grinding class 2 ascent to Foia will supply the primary actual signal of his 2025 kind. Come what might, the Algarve actually has sufficient robust terrain for Vingegaard to shine in the best way he did so brilliantly in his earlier first race of the season, O Gran Camiño, each in 2023 and 2024.
Primoz Roglic
Making his 2025 debut like Vingegaard, pre-season Primož Roglič has already stated that he will not be seeking to make a big impact – ie, going for the general win – within the Volta ao Algarve. But seeing how the main contender for the 2025 Giro d’Italia fares in his first race of the season will nonetheless be a narrative to observe, significantly as Roglič will solely then reappear within the Volta a Catalunya earlier than going for a second win in three years in Italy’s Grand Tour. And as there’s reportedly no time trial in Catalunya this yr, too, the Algarve would be the one alternative to undergo his paces in opposition to the clock earlier than May 9 and the Giro begin.
Rather than give an excessive amount of credence to his low season downplaying of expectations, the best way Roglič handles the robust ascent to Foia will probably show a way more dependable indication of his actual choices for the general win. After all, Roglič’s tendency to assert he is not in nice kind previous to giving the remainder of the sector an absolute hammering is a plotline that’s so acquainted by now it is change into professional biking’s equal of the boy who cried ‘wolf’ – albeit in Roglič’s case, one in bike rider’s clothes.
Furthermore, for all it is a distant reminiscence, Roglič has obtained earlier in Algarve: in 2017 he stored his most critical GC challenger, double winner Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) at bay all the best way up the Malhão on the ultimate day. At the time, Roglič accomplished the race with what was the most important stage racing victory in his fledgling palmares – however lots extra of these had been to come back. Could the 2025 Volta ao Algarve be the subsequent?
Geraint Thomas
A quiet begin for Geraint Thomas in his closing season on the Santos Tour Down Under in Australia is adopted by his solely race in February, in Portugal. But whereas his back-to-back victories in Algarve in 2015 and 2016, in addition to a runner’s up spot in 2017, all date from a time when he was far more focussed on the Classics than the Grand Tours, Thomas observe document nonetheless all the time make him a reference level within the five-day race.
Assuming the GC is off this system, Thomas’ most probably alternative for a serious kick out will arguably come on the final day’s time trial. But be it in breakaways or races in opposition to the clock, because the final season of one of many greats of current years unfolds, the Ineos Grenadier chief is all the time going to be a reputation to observe.
Wout van Aert
Take your choose from seven-hour mammoth coaching rides in Mallorca final week, a stellar function within the Cyclo-Cross World Championships final month after his shock late call-up, or a surprising stage win within the Algarve final yr. There are all the time loads of causes by no means to rule out Wout van Aert from any occasion he does, and this February in Portugal, he has each current race historical past and present kind on his facet: a really potent mixture.
With no Remco Evenepoel to eclipse him, it is probably that the small military of Belgian journalists that historically decamp to the Algarve can be placing Van Aert firmly within the highlight this week. Omloop is barely two weeks away, for one factor, and this may also be a key alternative to see if Van Aert’s rollercoaster 2024 street season is now absolutely behind him.
Last yr after his beautiful late assault into Tavira at Algarve, Van Aert briefly threatened to upset the GC applecart for Evenepoel, and this yr his alternatives to succeed his fellow Belgian within the race palmares are arguably even larger than in 2024. The closing uphill time trial can be very a lot to his liking, and so, too, would be the attacking terrain into Faro on stage 4.
Much will rely, too, on how teammate Jonas Vingegaard is dealing with the racing. But if Van Aert is pushing for a high lead to Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, it’d effectively be that Visma-Lease a Bike not less than begin Algarve with the thought of getting each their high racers on the ultimate podium in Portugal.
João Almeida
When Joao Almeida took half within the Vuelta a España in Portugal final yr, it doesn’t matter what the consequence turned out to be, his pleasure at being on house soil was palpable. And as Almeida identified, alternatives to race on house soil not often happen for him and are much more motivating because of this.
This yr, although, he’ll have two alternatives in simply over per week, first on the Figueira Champions Classic on Sunday 16 February and the Volta ao Algarve from February 19-23, and to guage by current kind, he’ll certainly be seeking to shine in each of them.
Ninth in Algarve in 2020 and sixth in 2023, his solely two participations to this point, the one-day Portuguese Classic on Sunday will present some additional indicators of Almeida’s probabilities of changing into the primary native rider to win Algarve – or certainly end on the rostrum – for the reason that now-suspended João Rodrigues upset the favourites’ applecart in 2021. But it is in stage racing the place Almeida actually shines, and there, too, the omens already are good.
Briefly the chief within the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and at last second general final week, Almeida is clearly in glorious kind and if he now manages to tackle teammate Pogačar’s key rival Vingegaard and attempt to beat him on house soil, long-term it could maybe not be so vital. But by way of the psychological battle between the 2 high Tour de France squads, while teammate Antonio Morgado’s victory within the Figuieras Classic makes him one key UAE possibility, an Almeida success story in Portugal would definitely carry its justifiable share of significance, too.
Julian Alaphilippe
Strange however true: In 11 years as a professional, Julian Alaphilippe has by no means raced within the Volta ao Algarve. But after switching squads from his solely earlier crew of QuickStep to Tudor over the winter, at 32, Alaphilippe is heading into new terrain race-wise as effectively.
The query of what Alaphilippe can obtain within the Algarve is an attention-grabbing one. It’s solely his second race with Tudor after Figueiras the earlier weekend, the place he positioned eighth, and each the Frenchman and his squad will nonetheless be getting used to racing collectively in Portugal. But relating to early season success, a win within the Faun Ardéche Classic in 2023 in France, in addition to a raft of stage wins within the sadly defunct Vuelta a San Juan and Tour Colombia/Colombia Oro y Paz in January and February earlier in his profession, all recommend the French allrounder could be very adept at hitting a high gear nearly as quickly as racing begins.
So if curiosity was already excessive on the likelihood to see Alaphilippe in his new crew colors for the primary time this season in Portugal, for all of the unfamiliarity of his crew equipment and the racing terrain, do not be shocked if Alaf’ is already within the thick of the Algarve motion, too.
Arnaud De Lie
When it involves the Volta ao Algarve’s form-guide for Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Arnaud De Lie’s efficiency might not are available for such intense scrutiny as compatriot Wout van Aert. But it will not be that far off, both.
The Lotto fastman’s second place, regardless of a crash, within the 2023 Omloop aged simply 20 was the sort of spectacular debut that would hardly fail to make waves. Not solely that, after successful a stage on this yr’s blighted version Étoile de Bessèges, the 2025 kind is clearly there, too.
It could possibly be argued although that, Bessèges, for causes which can be all too well-known, was not a full check of situation given its woefully depleted discipline, and the mix of sprinters and Classics specialists within the Algarve is actually a a lot larger problem. But whereas levels 1, 3 and 4 are De Lie’s key alternatives so as to add a second victory to his 2025 palmares, it is what it means by way of Omloop that can be making many of the headlines again in Belgium.
Jan Tratnik
Last yr Jan Tratnik was a number one outsider each at Algarve and Nieuwsblad, this February he can be doing something however flying below the radar in each occasions. Third general within the Algarve was already sudden sufficient, however for the Slovenian veteran then to assert Nieuwsblad whereas Van Aert supplied cowl behind was an much more spectacular achievement.
The query of what Tratnik can obtain in each races given he’s now not allowed a lot room for manoeuvre is one that’s exhausting to reply. That’s significantly true as at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe he’ll now take pleasure in full chief’s standing in Omloop.
After failing to complete Bessèges when his crew pulled out over questions of safety, Algarve ought to present some much-needed key indications about his underlying kind. It may even be that if he is sturdy sufficient, Roglič himself acts as crew help for Tratnik in Portugal.
Biniam Girmay
The similar however completely different: final yr Intermarché-Wanty took the opening stage of the Volta ao Algarve within the bunch dash, this yr they will be hoping for an similar consequence on the similar stage 1 route from Portimão westward to Lagos. However, the sprinter in query they will be seeking to do the job for them has modified – from Gerben Thijssen to Biniam Girmay.
Interestingly, Thijssen has converted to the UAE Tour, whereas Girmay’s Algarve participation, alternatively, is now a part of his build-up for Omloop the next weekend. At the identical time, after his beautiful sequence of stage victories within the Tour de France final yr, Girmay’s star is certainly on the rise, and it will be intriguing to see how he fares in opposition to theoretically extra in-form sprinters like Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) and Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep).
And if, within the course of, he can repeat Intermarché-Wanty’s success in final yr’s Algarve, that’d be a good way to get the ball rolling.