{"id":483864,"date":"2026-02-18T21:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T21:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/483864\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T21:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T21:46:11","slug":"volta-ao-algarve-paul-magnier-rockets-to-stage-1-victory-as-soudal-quickstep-control-final-kilometre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/483864\/","title":{"rendered":"Volta ao Algarve: Paul Magnier rockets to stage 1 victory as Soudal-QuickStep control final kilometre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Magnier gave Soudal-QuickStep their first victory of 2026, winning stage 1 at Volta ao Algarve<\/a> as he rocketed past Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Pavel Bittner (Picnic-PostNL).<\/p>\n

Magnier had to come from behind as he chose the wheel of Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech), after the Belgian\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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“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 Cl\u00e0ssica Comunitat Valenciana],” Magnier said.<\/p>\n

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“Second place is already really good, but today was really different for me. I had really a really strong team around me, a full train with new riders coming in the team. So that’s super special for me. I’m super happy about the work we did again today. We came with ambitions, and I can be really happy with the team victory today.”<\/p>\n

Magnier leads the overall by four seconds over Meeus and breakaway rider Noah Campos (Tavira\/Credito Agricola), who profited from the bonus seconds available at the three ‘golden kilometre’ sprints and is third in the GC standings.<\/p>\n

Behind Bittner, overall favourite Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) is fifth at seven seconds.<\/p>\n

\n

\"TAVIRA,\n<\/p>\n

Stage 1 winner Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) celebrates at finish line (Image credit: Getty Images)How it unfolded<\/p>\n

The Volta ao Algarve got underway with a 185.6km stage from Vila Real de Santo Ant\u00f3nio 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.<\/p>\n

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Noah Campos (Tavira\/Credito Agricola), Enzo Leijnse (Anicolor\/Campicarn), Jo\u00e3o Silva (Feira dos Sofas-Boavista), Tomas Contte (Aviludo-Louletano-Loule), Bruno Silva (Tavfer-Ovos Matinados-Mortagua), Diogo Narciso (Credibom\/LA Aluminios\/Marcos Car), Jos\u00e9 Miguel Moreira and Andr\u00e9 Ribeiro (GI Group Holding-Simoldes-UDO), and Viacheslav Ivanov (Feirense-Beecler) escaped in the first 10km to make up the day’s breakaway.<\/p>\n

\n

\"TAVIRA,\n<\/p>\n

The breakaway on stage 1 (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

What had been a two-minute gap began to shrink to just over one until 58km to go, when Jo\u00e3o Silva crashed out of the breakaway when he ran into a kerb on the exit of a roundabout.<\/p>\n

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That incident slowed the progress of the escape and slashed their advantage to just 30 seconds, but rather than close them down, Alpecin-Premier Tech kept a steady pace on the second climb of the day at Faz Fato to let the breakaway dangle.<\/p>\n

With the chase sitting up, Bruno Silva jumped clear of his companions in the lead group.<\/p>\n

Hugo Nunes took the opportunity to jump across to the breakaway which was in the process of shattering as Leijnse, Contte and Ivanov jumped clear and held 25-second gap over the chasers and 1:15 on the peloton.<\/p>\n

Contte claimed the maximum points to take the lead in that classification as Nunes and Narciso caught Moreira and Ribeiro.<\/p>\n

Ribeiro dropped off the pace over the summit, leaving the trio to try to close down a 20-second gap with 40km to go.<\/p>\n

While the trio made solid progress and the two escape groups became one with 35km to go, however, Alpecin-Premier Tech were also accelerating and beginning to nullify their lead.<\/p>\n

With 32km to go, the breakaway’s fortunes shifted for the worse as the gap dropped to 32 seconds, making a bunch sprint a near inevitability.<\/p>\n

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\"TAVIRA,\n<\/p>\n

Breakaway trio (L to R): Tomas Contte of Team Aviludo – Louletano – Loul\u00e9, Viacheslav Ivanov of Feirense-Beeceler and Enzo Leijnse of Anicolor Campicarn (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Nunes wasn’t prepared to let that happen and attacked solo – but the peloton caught them all anyhow with 25km to go, in the midst of the ‘golden kilometre’ where there were three sprints, each with a three-second time bonus for the first rider, two for second and one for third.<\/p>\n

Nunes claimed the first two bonifications while Jan Tratnik (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) won the third, while Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) picked up three seconds for second on sprint 2 and third on sprint 3.<\/p>\n

Soudal-QuickStep and Lidl-Trek led the race into the final 4km as the fight for sprint train positioning ramped up, with Picnic-PostNL, Pinarello-Q36.5 and Tudor Pro Cycling taking over with 2km to go.<\/p>\n

The washing machine was on full agitation, with NSN, Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9 and even Ineos Grenadiers taking turns in the wind.<\/p>\n

When it came to a one-lane squeeze with 1.2km to go, it was UAE Team Emirates-XRG who led through, but Alpecin-Premier Tech had Philipsen in a perfect position. However, Magnier came from behind and pounced for the win.<\/p>\n

Results<\/p>\n

Results powered by FirstCycling<\/a><\/p>\n

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