News | Volta ao Algarve • February 14, 2018
Volta ao Algarve: Swift 15th in the opening stage
Many crashes characterized the final part of the race; first appearance for UAE Team Emirates of Martin and Sutherland
The 1st stage of the Volta ao Algarve, 192,6 km from Albufeira to Lagos, was marked by the debut of Daniel Martin and Rory Sutherland as UAE Team Emirates’ riders (photo Bettini, the whole team on the podium before the start).
The final part of the race was characterized by four crashes in the last 15 km, in which no athletes from the Emirati team got involved.
The stage was won by Groenewegen on Démare, best result for the UAE Team Emirates is the 15th place of Swift, who received a huge support by Laengen.
“We managed to avoid the crashes in the final 15 km, however this prevented us to approach the final sprint in a proper way – sports director Mauduit said commenting the stage – We feel we could be satisfied enough for not having been involved in the crashes and we must immediately focus our attention on tomorrow stage.
All the riders from our team were at their seasonal debut, their fit will improve day by day“.
Stage 1 results
1 Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) 4h47’58”
2 Arnaud Démare (FDJ) s.t.
3 Hugo Hofstetter (Cofidis) s.t.
15 Ben Swift (UAE Team Emirates) s.t.
General classification after stage 1
1 Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) 4h47’58”
2 Arnaud Démare (FDJ) s.t.
3 Hugo Hofstetter (Cofidis) s.t.
