As a non-climber, Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) held on until close to the finish of stage 2 of the Volta ao Algarve at the Alto da Fóia.
However, when Belgian champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and stage winner Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe) leapt away, he was already empty and heading backwards.
"I felt good for a long time on the final climb and believed in it until two kilometres from the finish, but then it turned out that it was fairly easy in the wheels," Van Aert told the Belgian media after the stage. "When they accelerated again, it was no longer possible."
Van Aert severely curtailed his cyclocross season to focus on the Spring Classics this year and started his road season earlier than any other time in his career, first at the Clásica de Almería and Clásica Jaén in Spain and now at the Volta ao Algarve. It's all part of his plan to finally get the Tour of Flanders win his country has been expecting of him before making his Giro d'Italia debut.
"I need efforts like this to get better. My legs were completely dead at the end, I couldn't pedal really crazy numbers anymore," Van Aert said. "It was death to the finish. But I still have to work on these efforts, so I am satisfied."
Visma-Lease a Bike's sports director at the race, Marc Reef, had no problems with Van Aert's result.
"When you see how long Wout was able to stay on this course, with how the racing went and who was still there, we can only be satisfied," Reef said.
"He was unable to show himself in Jaén due to bad luck, but here he has proven that he is on the right track. We can be happy."
Van Aert sits 26 seconds behind Martínez in 16th place in the overall classification with three stages to go but said he isn't targeting the GC.
"I definitely want to do a good time trial and the last stage is also tough. I'm looking forward to those two things."
