Date: Friday, 21 February 2025
The sprinters were looking forward to stage three in the Volta ao Algarve, because on day one they could not show their fast legs. Due to the fiasco with the signalman they could not sprint for the victory. On day two it was a day for the climbers, so they had to wait until the stage on Friday. That was a tailor-made stage, with a slightly hilly course with a mainly flat finale.
The announced mass sprint did not, however, ensure that there was no desire to attack. In fact, a large leading group rode away. It included no less than nine Portuguese and one Briton. Their lead fluctuated around three and a half minutes for a long time.
The leading group in pictures – photo: Cor Vos
Battle for the bonuses
The leading group, however, was not strong enough to hold out for long against the chasing peloton. They were caught very early, with about 50 kilometers to go. Then it was time to look forward to the intermediate sprint for a few bonus seconds. Since the differences in the classification are still very small at the moment, there was an opportunity for the classification riders.
However, there was very little enthusiasm for the bonus seconds. It was Mathias Vacek who took the most seconds. The Czech is in sixteenth position in the rankings and thus reduced his deficit to Jan Christen . After the intermediate sprint, the peloton prepared for the sprint in the finish town of Tavira.
Meeus does it in Tavira
It took a while before it happened, but in the last ten kilometers the pace really went up. Many teams tried to position their fast man and GC man well. In the last kilometers Lotto took the upper hand. They made sure that their fast man, Arnaud De Lie , was in a great position to tackle the last few hundred meters.
De Lie let himself be pushed aside in those last meters, which put him in an ungrateful position. Then we saw a rather chaotic sprint. In the end it was Jordi Meeus who found a gap and sprinted strongly to victory. So Meeus now hit the mark in the Volta ao Algarve, after he was the fastest in stage one, but was not on the right side of the fences.
Behind Meeus Alberto Dainese shot to second place. Biniam Girmay came third, ahead of De Lie and Casper van Uden . Van Aert was not so well positioned and had to settle for eighth place.
The top ten in full:
1 Jordi Meeus
2 Alberto Dainese
3 Biniam Girmay
4 Arnaud De Lie
5 Casper Van Uden
6 Milan Fretin
7 Madis Mihkels
8 Wout van Aert
9 Santiago Mesa
