Geraint Thomas extended his overall lead at the Volta ao Algarve with victory in stage 3’s time trial.
The Team Sky rider was untouchable as he completed the 20.3km course in 24m09s.
Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) set an early strong time and sat nervously in the hot seat until Thomas stormed in 11 seconds faster.
“It was nice to get a win and like I said yesterday I didn’t expect it”, said Thomas. “With the first race of the year you’re always a bit unsure but I’ve done some decent work and it’s all seemed to come together today.
“I tried to start strong and hold on and luckily I was able to. After just five days of racing you never know how your body will react, especially at this time of year and there’s a lot of strong riders here so I’m not taking anything for granted. Victories are few and far between so I’ll enjoy this.”
Volta ao Algarve 2018 – stage 3 results (Lagoa – Lagoa ITT):
| 1 | Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) | 24:09 |
| 2 | Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) | +11” |
| 3 | Stefan Küng (BMC) | +19” |
| 4 | Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) | +22” |
| 5 | Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) | +23” |
| 6 | Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin) | +27” |
| 7 | Tejay van Garderen (BMC) | +48” |
| 8 | Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors) | +49” |
| 9 | Vasil Kiryienka (Team Sky) | +50” |
| 10 | Lukasz Wisniowski (Team Sky) | +51” |
General classification after stage 3:
| 1 | Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) | 10:01:58 |
| 2 | Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) | +22” |
| 3 | Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) | +32” |
| 4 | Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors) | +52” |
| 5 | Tejay van Garderen (BMC) | +53” |
| 6 | Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) | +01’01” |
| 7 | Jaime Roson (Movistar) | +01’18” |
| 8 | Maximilian Schachmann (Quick-Step Floors) | +01’19” |
| 9 | Felix Grossschartner (Bora-hansgrohe) | +01’20” |
| 10 | Vasil Kiryienka (Team Sky) | +01’24” |
