Max Schachmann finished fifth overall in his first race of the season.
Another edition of the Volta ao Algarve came to a conclusion, and our team came out of the race with a nice haul of results brought by Maximilian Schachman and Ilan Van Wilder, who both concluded in the general classification top ten.
The duo started the final day of the race – a demanding 19.6km individual time trial that culminated atop the iconic Alto do Malhão – outside the first ten, but managed to put together a really nice ride to make up ground and upgrade their position in the overall standings of the Portuguese race. Schachmann, who made his first outing of the season here, was our top finisher, his top five on the last stage being enough to elevate him a remarkable nine places in the ranking.
The German finished fifth the race won by Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike), a result that augurs well ahead of his return to Paris-Nice, one of his favourite races on the calendar, and was joined in the top ten by Ilan Van Wilder, who thanks to his equally impressive ride concluded seventh at the Volta ao Algarve.
“I came here from altitude training and it was my first race with the team, but I had a good week together with the guys and we can be satisfied with everything. We still have a lot of work to do, but this is promising, especially as there was a strong field here, so fifth is quite a solid result. The atmosphere in the team was great, we had a nice time together, and now I will return to training before taking on my first World Tour race of the season, Paris-Nice”, Max said after the race.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images
