Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) claimed the first summit finish of the Volta ao Algarve, powering to the top of the Alto da Foia to take the race lead ahead of Geraint Thomas (Sky) and Slovenian Primoz Roglic (LottoNl-Jumbo). It was a bit of revenge for Sanchez, who was second to Thomas' teammate Wout Poels in the Volta a la Valenciana earlier this month.
Sanchez surged up to the lead group, led with 500m to go by Movistar's Ion Izagirre and Tiago Machado (Katusha). Thomas attacked on the steep pitch before the finish, but Sanchez countered, leaving Thomas to finish one second behind, while Primoz topped Izagirre for third. Machado came in two further seconds in arrears.
It was Sanchez's first win since 2014, when he claimed a stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon while racing for Caja Rural.
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The expected fireworks from Alberto Contador never materialised. While the Tinkoff team took control for much of the stage, and Contador led a select group over the top of the penultimate climb, he could not follow the accelerations on the final ascent and finished a distant 24 seconds behind in 21st place. Fabio Aru (Astana) fared slightly better in 10th at 15 seconds.
The 198.6km stage from Lagoa kicked off with an early seven-rider breakaway that dangled only a few minutes ahead of the peloton on the 'queen stage'. Oliver Naesen (IAM Cycling), Sean De Bie (Lotto Soudal), Jonathan Lastra (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Alberto Cecchin (Team Roth), Jonas Koch (Verva ActiveJet), Gregory Rast (Trek-Segafredo), and Ricardo Mestre (W52/FC Porto) were the lucky seven who fought out the three intermediate sprints in the first half of the stage.
But with four climbs in the final 60km, the teams of the main contenders - Movistar, Tinkoff, and Astana - worked to control their lead. As the first mountain began to bite, the breakaway disintegrated, first Rast, Lastra, Cecchin, and Koch let go, and then the peloton swept past the remaining three with 40km to go.
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