On his first climbing test of the 2018 season, Bauke Mollema impressed as he placed second to Michal Kwiatkowski (Sky) at the conclusion of the Fóia climb on stage 2 of the Volta ao Algarve.
Mollema's placing moved the Trek-Segafredo rider into fifth place overall, tied on time with Kwiatkowski, and has him well placed to challenge for the overall title.
"It was a pretty hard day all day, up and down, a lot of steep climbs. We started the last climb with a large peloton, but we were in good position with the team. It was a strange climb, it was quite flat," said Mollema, who makes his debut at the Portuguese stage race in 2018.
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Analysing the final of the stage and his chance of the stage win, Mollema explained there was little more he could have done.
"In the last K there were still 20 guys together, there were a lot of attacks, but it's hard to make a difference on this climb," he said. "I saw the videos from last year, so I did not put too much energy into attacking and BMC and Sky still had a lot of guys there, so I just waited for the last kilometer.
"In the sprint, Kwiatkowski had a fast acceleration and in the last 50 meters I was able to come around Dan Martin and I passed Geraint Thomas on the line. I think second was the best that I could do today.
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