Paul Magnier gave Soudal-QuickStep their first victory of 2026, winning stage 1 at Volta ao Algarve as he rocketed past Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Pavel Bittner (Picnic-PostNL).
Magnier had to come from behind as he chose the wheel of Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech), after the Belgian’s team worked most of the day for him, but into the headwind, Magnier jumped at just the right time, leaving Philipsen to settle for fourth.
“It’s my first victory – I was second in my first race, so I’m really happy to finally take it after my second place in [the Clàssica Comunitat Valenciana],” Magnier said.
How it unfolded
The Volta ao Algarve got underway with a 185.6km stage from Vila Real de Santo António on the southern coast to Tavira, not very far away. The route took the peloton to the north for a long loop with two climbs before the flat finish.
Noah Campos (Tavira/Credito Agricola), Enzo Leijnse (Anicolor/Campicarn), João Silva (Feira dos Sofas-Boavista), Tomas Contte (Aviludo-Louletano-Loule), Bruno Silva (Tavfer-Ovos Matinados-Mortagua), Diogo Narciso (Credibom/LA Aluminios/Marcos Car), José Miguel Moreira and André Ribeiro (GI Group Holding-Simoldes-UDO), and Viacheslav Ivanov (Feirense-Beecler) escaped in the first 10km to make up the day’s breakaway.
Narciso dropped on an uncategorized climb after Marcador with 82km to go, bringing the lead group down to eight, but he clawed his way back.
What had been a two-minute gap began to shrink to just over one until 58km to go, when João Silva crashed out of the breakaway when…
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