Despite Soren Kragh Andersen’s attempts to take the GC lead, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) held on to seal his first overall WorldTour stage win in Algarve.
Zdenek Stybar (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) took the final stage victory after a late breakaway with Søren Kragh Andersen (Team Sunweb) just about holding on for second place three seconds behind.
Wout Poels (Team Sky) took third, nine seconds down, but the day belonged to Pogacar, who was a minute behind Kragh Andersen at the bottom of the final climb, risking to lose the race.
The 20-year-old rider made a miraculous recovery on the Alto de Malhão which saw him close the gap to Kragh Andersen to just 15 seconds at the finish line, clinching the yellow jersey.
“Yeah, it was a crazy fast day and my teammates did a really good job on the front all day,” Pogačar said after the stage. “They were working more than 100%, so I’m really proud of them and really happy to win.
“I panicked a bit but I knew that [Simone] Petilli and [Valerio] Conti were still good, so it was pretty OK for us. This is definitely a dream come true. It’s hard to believe that I won.”
Volta ao Algarve 2019 – stage 5 results (Faro – Malhão):
| 1 | Zdenek Stybar (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | 4:13:48 |
| 2 | Søren Kragh Andersen (Team Sunweb) | +03” |
| 3 | Wout Poels (Team Sky) | +09” |
| 4 | Enric Mas (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | +12” |
| 5 | Stephen Cummings (Dimension Data) | +17” |
| 6 | Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) | +18” |
| 7 | João Pedro Rodrigues (W52-FC Porto) | +24” |
| 8 | Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb) | +30” |
| 9 | Tao Geoghegan Hart (Team Sky) | +31” |
| 10 | Amaro Antunes (CCC) | +34” |
Volta ao Algarve 2019 – final general classification:
| 1 | Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) | 19:26:34 |
| 2 | Søren Kragh Andersen (Team Sunweb) | +14” |
| 3 | Wout Poels (Team Sky) | +21” |
| 4 | Enric Mas (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | +25” |
| 5 | Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb) | +01’40” |
| 6 | Zdenek Stybar (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | +01’54” |
| 7 | Neilson Powless (Jumbo-Visma) | +02’50” |
| 8 | Amaro Antunes (CCC) | +02’52” |
| 9 | João Pedro Rodrigues (W52-FC Porto) | +03’27” |
| 10 | Simon Spilak (Katusha-Alpecin) | +03’47” |
