The day after a chaotic final on the Tour of the Algarve, the second stage of the Portuguese event took place this Thursday without incident, from start to finish. At the Alto da Foia, the only summit finish of the week – time trial excluded – the main favourites therefore battled for victory. After Rémy Rochas tried to anticipate in the foothills of the final climb, Romain Grégoire held on until the last kilometre, and then fought hard to grab eleventh place of the day, sixteen seconds behind the winner Jan Christen.
In Lagoa, the starting city of the second stage of the Tour of the Algarve, all the riders set off on Thursday on an equal footing. Following a course error in the last kilometre of the opening stage in Lagos, the organisers indeed took the decision to simply cancel the results. No winner had been declared, and no general classification had been established. That being said, the day’s final towards the Alto da Foia would have, in any case, turned everything around. A very steep final forty kilometres loomed ahead of the peloton, with a different approach to past editions. “It was a discovery, but we had done a recon of the final climb,” explained Frédéric Guesdon. “We knew it was going to be harder than in previous years, but on this type of profile, Romain has to fight with the best. The briefing for the day was therefore to aim for the stage win, and therefore the general classification.” Before getting to the hardest part of the route, the peloton spent a quiet calm day behind eight fugitives, some of whom were able to tackle the final with a bit of a lead. With forty kilometres to go, however, the tempo quickly increased in the peloton, already causing some damage.
“It’s promising for Rémy”, Frédéric Guesdon
Groupama-FDJ still had five men in the leading peloton before heading towards the steep climb of Pomba, where Stefan Küng was forced to let thirty riders or so slip away. “Usually, Stefan manages to be in the mix in Algarve, but it was more difficult this year, especially because the very steep penultimate climb didn’t suit him,” said Frédéric. “And then it is also his return to racing”. Rémy Rochas and Romain Grégoire managed to remain in the first group, and the French climber even attacked in the transition part before the Alto da Foia (8.5 km at 5%). He first went up the road with Laurens De Plus, then he was joined by four other riders, including Jan Christen, before being distanced five kilometres from the summit. “It’s obviously a pity because he was in the right move, but it’s promising nonetheless,” commented Frédéric. “He was there in the final and hadn’t raced since Australia.” A pity indeed, as Jan Christen, who came out of this early attack, managed to stay away until the end to claim victory at the summit. Within the favourites’ group, Romain Grégoire fought hard to secure the best possible result.
“There’s room for improvement”, Romain Grégoire
“We all got to the bottom of the final climb quite exhausted already,” explained Romain. “The first climb at forty kilometres and the penultimate one really tired our legs. The last climb was more irregular, with steeper parts, a road in poor condition and flat areas where you could catch your breath a little. It was quite tactical in the end, and it was an effort that suited me quite well. I felt really good, until it exploded with two kilometres to go.” Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic used their last bullets at that point and the Frenchman lost a few meters. “I missed a little something to catch the first group, but I fought as best I could until the line,” he added. This took him to eleventh place on the day, sixteen seconds behind the winner. “We didn’t win the stage, but Romain is in the mix for the general classification, and when you look at the guys in front of him, this is only high-level”, summed up Frédéric. “It’s still encouraging for the future. It’s his first race of the year while the UAE guys have already raced. That surely makes a difference”.
“There’s still room for improvement”, added Romain, also eleventh overall, twenty-six seconds behind Christen. “There aren’t any big gaps, I’m not far from the top-10, so we’ll try to be content with that for now and wait until Sunday to try and move up a bit in GC”.
