This time, the peloton sprinted on the right road in Algarve. In Tavira, finish of the third stage, a bunch sprint concluded the day as expected, and Johan Jacobs (11th) as well as Lewis Askey (12th) finished just outside the top 10. Jordi Meeus won the stage while Romain Grégoire safely reached the finish line and now sits in ninth place overall.
After missing an opportunity on Wednesday, the sprinters absolutely didn’t want to make another chance slip away this Friday on the Tour of the Algarve. Although it was made up of ten riders, the day’s breakaway therefore never had a chance against the peloton over the 183 kilometres leading to Tavira. The gap never reached four minutes, and everything even came back together with more than fifty kilometres to go. Then, the riders dealt with some hectic sequences and calmer ones. “The guys worked well so that Romain would always be protected, wouldn’t get trapped, and wouldn’t lose time,” explained Frédéric Guesdon. “We also wanted to possibly contest the bonus sprint twenty-four kilometres from the finish, but we got a bit outflanked at that point.” Perfectly attentive during the various accelerations in the final, Groupama-FDJ was then able to safely bring their young leader to his destination, meaning at three kilometres to go.
“A positive day”, Frédéric Guesdon
The fierce battle for positioning was then underway. “We tried to go for the sprint with Lewis, and the guys tried to bring him up in the final,” added Frédéric. “The goal was to position him with one or two kilometres to go, then Lewis had to manage on his own because he’s good at making his way through. After doing his job, Johan stayed a bit behind, waiting, and it finally opened up in front of him. He kept his effort going to enjoy himself and try to do a small result”. The Swiss rider and his British teammate eventually reached the finish almost on the same line, in eleventh and twelfth positions respectively, a few lengths behind the winner Jordi Meeus. “The day went without trouble for us, and that’s already a good thing,” said Frédéric. “You shouldn’t take that for granted at the start of the season, on these courses and with the stress. It’s a positive day.”
Romain Grégoire also gained two places overall on Friday but remains twenty-six seconds behind the leader Jan Christen. “Tomorrow should be a great stage,” concluded Frédéric. “The route at the start is hard with the climb of Malhao. I think there could be some action for a while, and we will try to join it. The other goal will obviously be to protect Romain so that everything goes well before the final time trial”.
