The Australian time trial champion and winner of the 2012 Volta ao Algarve/Tour of Algarve Richie Porte, is back in the Portuguese race which will be held between the 18th and 22nd of February. The peloton will be completed with the inclusion of two continental teams, the Polish ActiveJet and the Basque Murias Taldea.

Richie Porte, 74th in the world rankings in 2014, is the strongest name chosen by Team Sky for the 41st edition of the Volta ao Algarve/Tour of Algarve. He is one of the in-form riders at the beginning of this season, having won the Australian time trial championships and the queen stage of the Tour Down Under race where he finished second overall.

In addition to the Australian, the British team will present two other riders from the top 100 of the WorldTour rankings, Geraint Thomas (31st) and Ben Swift (59th).

Andy Fenn, Ian Boswell, Sebastian Henao, Lars Petter Nordhaug and Salvatore Puccio are the other riders in the Team Sky roster for the race.

The peloton of the 41st Volta ao Algarve/Tour of Algarve will have 22 teams, eight of them from the WorldTour level: Astana, Cannondale-Garmin, Ettix-QuickStep, Katusha, Lotto NL-Jumbo, Lotto Soudal, Movistar and Sky.

Five teams from the professional continental category will be at the start: Bora-Argon 18, Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, RusVelo, Team Roompot and Wanty-Groupe Gobert. The organizers have also ensured the presence of the six Portuguese continental teams and the American Optum p / b Kelly Benefit Strategies, the Polish ActiveJet and the Spanish Murias Taldea. The Polish team will line up with Pawel Franczak, Kamil Gradek, Lukasz Bodnar Michal Podlaski, Pawel Brylowski, Arkadiusz Owsian, Pawel Bernas and Mario González.

Pre-entry list

Astana: Michele Scarponi, Luis León Sánchez, Rein Taaramae Valerio Agnoli, Davide Malacarne, Maxat Ayazbayev, Arman Kamyshev and Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev.

Cannondale-Garmin: André Cardoso, Davide Formolo, Kristijan Koren, Sebastian Langeveld, Alan Marangoni, Ramunas Navardauskas, Kristoffer Skjerping and Dylan van Baarle.

Katusha: Tiago Machado, Sergey Chernetski, Yuri Trofimov, Alexander Porsev, Rudiger Selig, Alberto Losada, Anton Vorobyev and Alexander Kolobnev.

Lotto NL-Jumbo: Robert Gesink, Sep Vanmarcke, Tom van Asbroeck, Paul Martens, Bram Tankink, Robert Wagner, Kevin de Weert and Maarten Wynants.

Lotto Soudal: André Greipel, Tony Gallopin, Jens Debusschere, Jurgen Roelandts, Sean de Bie, Stig Broeckx, Marcel Sieberg and Vegard Breen. 

Movistar: Jonathan Castroviejo, Rubén Fernández, John Gadret, Jesús Herrada, José Herrada, Ion Izaguirre, Adriano Malori and Marc Soler.

Sky: Ian Boswell, Andy Fenn, Sebastian Henao, Lars Petter Nordhaug, Richie Porte, Salvatore Puccio, Ben Swift and Geraint Thomas.

Caja Rural-Seguros RGA: Ricardo Vilela, José Gonçalves, Ángel Madrazo, Heiner Parra, Hugh Carthy, Omar Fraile, Luis Mas and Fabricio Ferrari.

RusVelo: Ivan Balykin, Igor Boev, Petr Ignatenko, Artem Nych, Roman Maikin, Artem Ovechkin, Kirill Pozdnyakov and Mamyr Stash.

Team Roompot: Michel Kreder, Raymond Kreder, Wesley Kreder, Jesper Asselman, Maurits Lammertink, Berden de Vries, Tim kerkhof and Mike Terpstra.

Wanty-Goupe Gobert: Bjorn Leukemans, Marco Marcato, Francis de Greef, Roy Jans, Jan Ghijselinck, Frederik Veuchelen, Kevin Van Melsen and James Vanlandschoot.

ActiveJet: Mario González, Lukasz Bodnar, Michal Podlaski, Pawel Brylowski, Pawel Franczak, Arkadiusz Owsian, Pawel Bernas e Kamil Gradek.

Oputm: Jesse Anthony, Scott Zwizanski, Thomas Zirbel, Eric Young, Ryan Anderson, Bradley Huff, William Routley and Phil Gaimon.

Stages

1st Lagos – Albufeira, 166,7 km

2nd Lagoa – Monchique, 197,2 km

3rd Vila do Bispo – Cabo de S. Vicente, 19 km (ITT)

4th Tavira – Malhão, 218,3 km

5th Almodôvar – Vilamoura, 184,9 km