Volta ao Algarve: Stage win for Lopez

Attacking with 500 meters to go on a steep part of the final climb Alto do Malhão, Miguel Angel Lopez has scored his first success of the year, winning the fourth stage of the Volta ao Algarve, Evenpoel holds on to GC on mountain finish

Volta ao Algarve: Stage win for Lopez

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Miguel Angel Lopez– “I was aiming this stage, because I knew I could do something good on the final climb. Indeed, it was quite short, but in the same time very steep and hard. There were many attacks in the final, but I decided to wait until the last 500 meters, when I attacked from the leading group. I opened a gap and at the final 200 meters I just gave my best to keep my advantage.”

“I am very happy with my win; this means that all hard work done during the winter I did in a right way. This is my first race of the year and it is an important test for me at the start of the season. The whole team did a great job today, my teammates provided me a very strong support and I am happy to finish all this work with a victory. Tomorrow I will have another important test at the individual time trial, and I want to do it as good as possible”.

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Stage 4 of the Volta ao Algarve was the last mountain stage of the race: the riders passed 169.7 km from Albufeira to Malhão with 5 categorized climbs on the distance. Once the race hit Alto do Malhão for the first time, the daily breakaway has been caught back and immediately a few riders tried to attack. Anyway, no one could escape on the steepest slopes of the climb, thus the main group came back together on the descent before playing the stage on the final climb.

Until the last kilometer the main favorites stayed all together in the group, while the decisive move came from Miguel Angel Lopez who launched his powerful attack with 500 meters to go. After his win the Astana Pro Team rider moved up to the fourth position in the general classification of the Volta ao Algarve. With only one stage to go Lopez is 1 second behind the current race leader Remco Evenepoel, who finished third today.

The final, 5th stage will be held tomorrow: it will be a 20.3-km-long individual time trial in Lagoa.

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Stage
1. Miguel Angel Lopez Astana Pro Team 04:16:25
2. Daniel Martin Israel Start-Up Nation @ 02
3. Remco Evenepoel Deceuninck-Quick Step @ 04
4. Maximilian Schachmann Bora-Hansgrohe @ 04
5. Rui Costa UAE Team Emirates @ 05
6. Simon Geschke CCC Team @ 14
7. Amaro Antunes W52 – FC Porto @ 14
8. Bauke Mollema Trek-Segafredo @ 14
9. Jan Polanc UAE Team Emirates @ 19
10. Tim Wellens Lotto Soudal @ 21

15. Greg Van Avermaet CCC Team @ 27
17. Vincenzo Nibali Trek-Segafredo @ 52
23. Ben Swift Team Ineos @ 01:07
24. Michal Kwiatkowski Team Ineos @ 01:07
29. Philippe Gilbert Lotto Soudal @ 01:42
31. Geraint Thomas Team Ineos @ 02:23
46. Matteo Trentin CCC Team @ 04:22
48. Alexander Kristoff UAE Team Emirates @ 04:27
57. Rohan Dennis Team Ineos @ 04:58
61. Mathieu van der Poel Alpecin-Fenix @ 07:02
109. Jake Stewart Groupama-FDJ @ 11:35
140. Luke Rowe Team Ineos @ 16:58

Overall
1. Remco Evenepoel Deceuninck-Quick Step 18:59:35
2. Daniel Martin Israel Start-Up Nation
3. Maximilian Schachmann Bora-Hansgrohe
4. Miguel Angel Lopez Astana Pro Team @ 01
5. Rui Costa UAE Team Emirates @ 03
6. Amaro Antunes W52 – FC Porto @ 18
7. Bauke Mollema Trek-Segafredo @ 18
8. Tim Wellens Lotto Soudal @ 19
9. Simon Geschke CCC Team @ 24
10. Frederico Figueiredo Atum General-Tavira -Maria Nova Lounge H @ 31

13. Greg Van Avermaet CCC Team @ 56
14. Vincenzo Nibali Trek-Segafredo @ 56
17. Michal Kwiatkowski Team Ineos @ 01:30
18. Ben Swift Team Ineos @ 02:05