Sacha Modolo won the opening stage in this year’s Volta a Algarve in a sprint finish against Alessandro Petacchi, after being led out by his teammate Rui Costa – who finished second.
"It was a dream for me to have Rui Costa in his world champion’s jersey leading me out," said Modolo after the finish. "I don’t think I’ve got much chance of holding onto the leader’s jersey given the profile of tomorrow’s stage, but I hope that I can hand it on to Rui. Let’s hope that he can win tomorrow’s stage."
Lampre-Merida’s directeur sportif, Maxtin Joxean Fernàndez, expressed equal excitement over today’s victory.
"Our tactics worked out perfectly. Kwiatkowski jumped away on the final hill, but Rui was ready and reacted well to that move," he explained. "Then he eased off with the intention of working for Modolo and by doing that he managed to not only set Sacha up for the stage but also gain some bonus seconds for himself in the overall.
"It’s important for Sacha to beat Cavendish and those other good sprinters behind him, it’s important for the team too. That’s his fourth win of the season already. It’s also important for Rui, because it shows him that he’s got a good team behind him, that there are other riders who win races, that we’re a good group, and that we’re all prepared to work for each other."
Although Petacchi is at this year’s Volta in support of his teammate Mark Cavendish, the British rider was nowhere to be found in today’s sprint. In fact, Cavendish was only able to muster 94th position in today’s race – some 10 seconds behind the leader.
Meanwhile, race favorite Alberto Contador finished safely in the peloton – instead focussing on tomorrow’s hilly stage to Monchique.
The Race
Today’s stage got underway with five man breakaway group containing César Fonte, Luis Afonso, Alesandr Pliuschin, Volter Pereira and Bruno Silva – taking form early on.
However, as the escapees continued to increase their lead over the peloton, the pace proved to be too high for Pereira and Silva – as both riders fell back.
Fonte and the remaining escapees continued to forge ahead, with the Portuguese rider taking the intermediate sprint and the all important bonus seconds along with it. However, the three riders were eventually caught by the peloton in the final 20 kilometers.
At the end of today’s stage, Modolo leads César Fonte in the general classification by a mere second, while Costa is in third spot.
Sorry No Sound 🙁
Result:
1. Sacha Modolo 3.51.46
2. Rui Costa
3. Alessandro Petacchi
4. Bryan Coquard
5. Danilo Napolitano
6. Arnaud Demare
7. Edgar Pinto
8. Daniel Schorn
9. Alexey Tsatevich
10. Juan Jose Lobato
General classification:
1. Sacha Modolo 3.51.36
2. Cesar Fonte +0.01
3. Rui Costa +0.04
4. Alessandro Petacchi +0.06
5. Luis Afonso
6. Bryan Coquard +0.10
7. Danilo Napolitano
8. Arnaud Demare
9. Edgar Pinto
10. Daniel Schorn
Points classification:
1. Sacha Modolo 25
2. Rui Costa 20
3. Alessandro Petacchi 16
4. Bryan Coquard 13
5. Danilo Napolitano 10
Mountains classification:
1. Cesae Fonte 9
2. Luis Afonso 4
3. Bruno Silva 2
Teams classification:
1. FDJ.fr 11.35.18
2. Lampre-Merida +0.01
3. Wanty
4. OFM
5. Belkin +0.02
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