Maximilian Schachmann will start his season this week in sunny Portugal
Volta ao Algarve underwent some significant changes for this year’s edition, as the organisers have decided to replace the traditional Alto do Malhão summit finish with an uphill individual time trial. One of the most important early-season stage races, Algarve starts with the traditional flat stage to Lagos, followed just twenty-four hours later by a visit to Alto da Foia, the region’s highest point and the site of a statue inspired by Remco Evenepoel’s victory there in 2020.
The sprinters will be again in the thick of the action on the third day of the race, and possibly also on the fourth, that is if they will survive the late climbs of Santa Barbara and Bordeira. The final stage of the race revolves around the iconic Malhão (2.6km, 9.2%) – where Zdenek Stybar triumphed from the breakaway in 2019 – but this time the climb comes at the end of a 19.6km ITT.
Algarve will mark Maximilian Schachmann’s first appearance for the team since he rejoined the Wolfpack, and the 31-year-old German, who was runner-up here in 2020, will look to be among the protagonists on this hard course. Mattia Cattaneo, Gil Gelders, Yves Lampaert, Warre Vangheluwe, Dries Van Gestel and Ilan Van Wilder will join him for the race scheduled to start on Wednesday.
“We travel to this race with several guys who can go for the general classification. They have two important stages, Foia – which will be climbed from a different side this time – and Malhão. In the other stages, we’ll see if some of our riders can go in the breakaway and do something there. Algarve has always been good to us, and we hope this will be the case again and we’ll get some nice results, including in the overall standings”, explained Soudal Quick-Step sports director Tom Steels.
Photo credit: ©Wout Beel
