Volta ao Algarve stage 3 – LIVE

Back to today, and the riders have just set off from the unofficial start and making their way through a short neutralised zone.

Visma’s loss was UAE Team Emirates’ gain. Jan Christen reiterated his huge potential by taking stage victory and the overall lead on the summit, paralleling what teammate Tadej Pogačar did at the same age at this race six years ago. Ever the fickle sport, it’s tempting to already talk him up as ‘the next Pogačar’?

Not only that, João Almeida finished second for the team, and their other young super-talent António Morgado was fifth. They have firm control of this race.

Visma-Lease a Bike were certainly expecting better, as was clear from the fact they had their riders lead the bunch all day. DS Arthur van Dongen said afterwards that their plan was executed fine, but Vingegaard simply didn’t have the legs in the finale.

Reflecting back on yesterday, it was arguably the most surprising result of the season so far. Cycling in the past few years has often been quite predictable, with a small elite of riders dominating every race they appear in -.of which Jonas Vingegaard is one. Yesterday, however, Vingegaard looked human, and was unable to drop his rivals in the finale and finished down in sixth.

That said, the parcours isn’t quite as flat as the opening day, and isn’t straightforward for the sprinters. 

Whether or not this does indeed end in a bunch sprint could depend on the quality of the break that gets away at the start of the day – a big group of strong puncheurs could be hard to bring back.

After the GC race kicked off yesterday, stage three is poised to be a day for the sprinters – and hopefully one in which they actually get to sprint, unlike on stage one.

Welcome to Cyclingnews’ live coverage of stage 3 at the Volta ao Algarve