While Team Katusha competes in the final part of the Middle East racing season in the Tour of Oman, another team is fielded in sunny Portugal for the 41st Volta ao Algarve. The five-stage race began on Wednesday with a road stage at 166,7 km from Lagos to Albufeira.

"We started the race with some ambitions to fight in the sprints with Alex Porsev so the team worked for him today. Not far from the finish there was a short climb, but the peloton stretched there and our riders lost some positions. They tried to come back but it was a really fast downhill after the top and almost all the way to the finish line so it was not so easy. Finally, Rudi Selig was the best team rider with 14th place. Starting tomorrow the hard stages are coming and we have GC ambitions with Tiago Machado and Sergei Chernetckii so we are looking forward to the next days," said team director José Azevedo. 

An early attack of four riders went clear at kilometer 5 and built a time advantage of more than seven minutes before the gap began to come down. Near 150 km mark the break was brought back, setting up a mass sprint won by Gianni Meersman of Etixx – Quick Step after over four hours of racing. Joining him on the podium were Ben Swift (Sky) and Paul Martens of Lotto NL-Jumbo. Meersman wears the first leader’s jersey as well.

Stage 2 continues on Thursday with another road stage. At 197,2 km the stage begins in Lagoa and ends in Monchique with a series of category 3 climbs in the final that should catch the attention of the GC hopefuls.