Fabio Jakobsen out-sprinted former teammate Elia Viviani on the opening stage of the Volta ao Algarve in Lagos.
With 20km to go, Tim Wellens went on the attack, and brought a group of big-name riders with him. However, the sprinters teams caught the attackers and Jakobsen comfortably powered past Viviani in the finishing straight to take the win. Third place went to Matteo Trentin.
“I like the finish in Lagos, it’s a straight line, so you have enough space and you can win. I’m happy to win again here,” Jakobsen said. “It was quite hard when Wellens attacks with 15km to go, there were a couple of steep climbs but I managed to hang on and then in the final, my teammates put me in a perfect position. The finishing straight is 700 metres long and so if you have space, you go hard and win the sprint.
Jakobsen earned the first leader’s jersey on the day but with no bonus seconds on offer at the finish, he sits on the same time as the rest of the pack.
Volta ao Algarve 2020 – stage 1 results (Portimão – Lagos):
| 1 | Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | 4:55:37 |
| 2 | Elia Viviani (Cofidis) | ,, |
| 3 | Matteo Trentin (CCC) | ,, |
| 4 | Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 5 | Ion Aberasturi (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) | ,, |
| 6 | Cees Bol (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 7 | Roger Kluge (Lotto Soudal) | ,, |
| 8 | Davide Cimolai (Israel Start-Up Nation) | ,, |
| 9 | Daniel Hoelgaard (Uno-X) | ,, |
| 10 | Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
Volta ao Algarve 2020 – general classification after stage 1:
| 1 | Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | 4:55:37 |
| 2 | Elia Viviani (Cofidis) | ,, |
| 3 | Matteo Trentin (CCC) | ,, |
| 4 | Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 5 | Ion Aberasturi (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) | ,, |
| 6 | Cees Bol (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 7 | Roger Kluge (Lotto Soudal) | ,, |
| 8 | Davide Cimolai (Israel Start-Up Nation) | ,, |
| 9 | Daniel Hoelgaard (Uno-X) | ,, |
| 10 | Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
