The ‘galactic’ Visma-Lease a Bike and INEOS complete the luxury peloton of the 50th Volta ao Algarve, the race organizers announced on Tuesday, also confirming the participation of Intermarché-Wanty and the nine Portuguese teams.
After a historic season, in which it became the first team to win the three Grand Tours in the same year, the successor to Jumbo-Visma, with the Dane Jonas Vingegaard, the Belgian Wout van Aert and the North American Sepp Kuss as leading figures , will be in the ‘Algarvia’ for the 15th time.
In addition to the victory in the general classification of Primoz Roglic (now with BORA-hansgrohe), the Dutch structure won five stages in 2017 in the Algarve, where INEOS will also be present between February 14 and 18.
The British team has an enviable track record in the Volta ao Algarve, having won five editions: Daniel Martínez (also with BORA-hansgrohe) was victorious this year, Michal Kwiatkowski won in 2018, Geraint Thomas was the best in 2015 and 2016, and Richie Porte was crowned in 2012.
INEOS has also claimed 12 stage wins in the race which it will compete in for the 13th time, with the most recent being Thomas Pidcock’s at the Malhão summit in 2023.
The other first team announced today was Intermarché-Wanty, which is participating in the Volta ao Algarve for the 10th time.
The only Portuguese stage race on the UCI ProSeries circuit will therefore have 13 WorldTeams, the highest number ever (equal to 2018), namely with the top five in the world rankings this season: UAE Emirates (United Arab Emirates), Visma-Lease and Bike , Soudal Quick-Step (Belgium), INEOS and Lidl-Trek (United States).
In addition, the Belgian Alpecin-Deceuninck, the French Arkéa-B&B Hotels and Groupama-FDJ, the Kazakh Astana, the German BORA-hansgrohe, the North American EF Education-EasyPost and the Dutch DSM-firmenich will also be present at the fair. roads in the Algarve.
These are joined by Caja Rural (Spain), Tudor (Switzerland) and Uno-X (Norway), from the second tier of world cycling, and the nine Portuguese continental teams: ABTF Betão-Feirense, AP Hotels & Resorts-Tavira-Farense , Aviludo-Louletano-Loulé Concelho, Credibom-LA Alumínios-Marcos Car, Efapel, Kelly-Simoldes-UDO, Rádio Popular-Paredes-Boavista, Sabgal-Anicolor and Tavfer-Ovos Matinados-Mortágua.
The 50th edition of ‘Algarvia’ starts on February 14 in Portimão and ends on the 18th at the summit of Malhão.
Source: DN
