Megias Shows Good Form in Volta ao Algarve Finale

21 February 2016

Race: Volta ao Algarve, Stage 5

Start/Finish: Almodôvar/Alto do Malhão, Portugal

Distance: 169 kilometers

The last day of the Volta ao Algarve served as the race’s Queen stage with a decisive final climb up the Malhão that put the general classification on the line. A nine-man breakaway escaped on the 169-kilometer day, but the peloton kept them at a manageable gap. The first of two passes up the Malhão saw the initial breakaway reeled in and caused the peloton to splinter into groups. On the second time up the climb, an elite front group formed that featured Team Novo Nordisk’s Javier Megias. As this group hit the final sections of the climb, Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) attacked the group and held on to take the win solo.

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“Not so bad, not so bad. I obviously would have liked to do better, but I’m happy with where my form is for the third week in February after only one race,” Megias said. “Hopefully it will just continue to improve from here.”

“We had a good race today with Javier in the front,” Dutch rider Martijn Verschoor said. “Unfortunately we lost Clancy, though he did good this week! It was tough today because the 9-man breakaway was so big, and the peloton was forced to chase them the whole race, which made for a really fast and hard stage- with 3000m climbing.”

Team Novo Nordisk’s Charles Planet (FRA) also finished in the top 10 overall at Volta ao Algarve for the best young riders category.

Results: