The inaugural duel of the time between Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic will be the main attraction of a return to the Algarve of countless names of the platoon, with João Almeida to present himself as the outsider in the struggle for the general.
Chosen by ‘rogla’ and the Danish of Visma-Lease the bike to start the time, the 51st ‘Algarve’ has an unusual concentration of platoon figures (and for all tastes), bringing together three of the so-called ‘Big elements 6 ‘Cycling -the other is Wout van Aert -as well as large laps, such as Geraint Thomas and Sepp Kuss, and charismatic corridors such as Julian Alaphilippe or Biniam Girmay, both debut in the race, without forgetting the Olympic champions Iúri Leitão and Rui Oliveira.
Se Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Buro-Hansgrohe) returns to the Algarve to look for the second triumph, after having sacred champion in 2017, the two-time champion of the tour (2022 and 2023) will debut in the only Portuguese race by stages of the circuit Uci Proseries, with the first face to face between the two old colleagues, who will be reprinted on the tour, to be the main entitled of the edition that is on the road between Wednesday and Sunday.
In the fight between the four-time champion of Vuelta and Vingegaard, who has not competed since August, he may intrude João Almeida, a newly colorful runner-up of the return to the Valencian community and the largest Portuguese hope for a prominent place overall (will be he To wear the dorsal number ‘1’), although your UAE Emirates is not, on paper, as strong as the Visma-Lease block to the bike, which includes Kuss and Van Aert, or even Ineos.
In addition to Thomas, who elected the ‘Algarvia’ to his platoon farewellland -the Tour2018 champion won the Portuguese race in 2015 and 2016 -the British formation brings to Portugal the Italian Filippo Ganna and Norwegian Tobias Foss, respectively Second and fourth of the general in 2023, and Dutch Thymen Arensman, fifth last year.
With the title champion Remco Evenepoel Absent -suffered an accident while training in December and will be out of competition until April -there are several applicants to succeed the Belgian, namely Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl -Trek), still away from his best version After the serious drop he suffered at Giro2013, or the young Italian Antonio Tiberi, the fifth classified of the last ‘Corsa Rosa’, which will feature the Portuguese Afonso Eulálio among the companions of Bahrain Victorious.
And there will be no shortage of national ’emigrants’ in this, which will promote the reunion on the Madison Iúri Leitão Olympic Champions Road (Caja Rural) and Rui Oliveira, who will be accompanied by Brother Ivo and António Morgado, winner on Sunday of the Figueira Classic, in ‘Seven’ from UAE Emirates, in a ‘sponsored’ participation by veteran Rui Costa (EF Education-Easypost), the most consistent Portuguese in the last decade-was third in 2014, fourth in 2020 and fifth in 2013 and 2012.
The luxury cast of this ‘Algarvia’, which also includes veteran Romain Bardet (Picnic Postnl), as well as Thomas in a farewell tour, extends to candidates for stages, such as Van Aert, winner in Tavira on Last year, Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor), Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) or the promising Sprinter Arnaud de Lie (Lotto).
Also read:
