The Volta ao Algarve is over. André Greipel won the last stage and Geraint Thomas took the final victory. “The goal today was to help Gianni Meersman to a second stage win, but that did not work out. He finished fifth.”
“In the beginning of the stage it was always going up and down with a good pace in the bunch. The last 10 kilometer were really stressful, but we managed to stay in the front. We made some small mistakes in the lead-out, so it was not going as we wanted it to go.”
In the final standings nothing changed anymore so Michal Kwiatkowski finished second. Zdenek himself was just outside the top ten with an eleventh place. “I am returning back home with a good feeling of my condition. I am looking forward to the first classics.”