Geraint Thomas of Team Sky won the second stage of the Volta ao Algarve. The Briton also immediately takes the lead in the general classification over from Gianni Meersman. Styby moves up to a third place after he became sixth in the stage.
“We controlled the stage directly from kilometer 0. Yves Lampaerts and Petr Vakoc were riding in the front the whole time. Vakoc was impressive. The kid had a really strong engine and he shows it more and more.”
“Vakoc may also be an example for the young people in the Czech Republic who want to start cycling. We’re going to hear more from him.”
Back to the stage. “After 150 of the 197 to make kilometers there was a road with 1.000 corners. We rode in the front with the team. It actually was a bit of fun to do, but hard, though. The final was also hard with a steep climb of 4 kilometers.”
“Once again we started in front thanks to the work of the team. Tony Martin, Michal Kwiatkowski, Michal Golas and myself were still there. The pace was quite high, but Geraint Thomas managed to escape anyway. We never saw him again.”
In the sprint for second place the riders of Etixx-Quick Step made a little mistake. “Astana took over and took second, third and fourth place. ‘Kwiato’ was fifth and I finished sixth. Tomorrow there will be a time trial over 19 kilometers.”