Richie Porte and Tejay van Garderen will both line out for BMC Racing Team at the Volta ao Algarve, which gets underway on Wednesday. The five-day race will be Van Garderen’s first appearance of the 2018 season, while Porte is participating in his second stage race of the campaign after placing second overall at last month’s Tour Down Under.
Porte was the overall winner at the Volta ao Algarve in 2012, but has not competed in the Portuguese event since he finished fourth overall in his final season at Team Sky in 2015. He won the summit finish at the Alto do Malhao in both 2012 and 2015, and will look to test himself on the climb again when it features on the final stage of this year’s race.
“I'm looking forward to getting back to racing and lining up with the team in Portugal. It's still really early in the season and as this is my first race in Europe this year, I'm not going in with any huge expectations,” Porte said in a statement released by the team. “My main goal is to get some good race days in my legs and having come from a very hot Australian summer, adjust to racing in the cooler weather again. We have a strong team and different cards to play on the various stages.”
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Van Garderen is set to be deployed in a different role in Grand Tours by BMC in 2018, and rather than chase his own GC ambitions, he will line out at the Tour de France as Porte’s chief lieutenant in the high mountains.
BMC general manager Jim Ochowicz said during the winter that he believed van Garderen would win the general classification at a WorldTour stage race before the 2018 Tour, but the rider himself noted that he start out playing a supporting role at the category 2.1 Volta ao Algarve. Van Garderen finished second overall behind Tony Martin in the race in 2011.
“This winter has been really great preparation wise. I feel like all the boxes have been ticked, and I'm super motivated to start the season strong,” Van Garderen said. “Richie will be the leader going into the race, but if we are on good form it'll be a lot of fun playing off one another. I've raced this race five times in the past, finishing on the podium once in 2011, so I know what to expect.”
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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