It has been 48 hours since Jordi Meeus thought he had a bunch sprint 'victory' in stage 1 of the Volta ao Algarve, only to discover he and a large proportion of the peloton had been sent off course. On stage 3's finish in Tavira, the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider was the fastest once again - with the rather important difference that this time round, the triumph was his for keeps.
Last year's Tavira stage winner Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) was boxed in, but Belgium still had something to cheer about as Van Aert's compatriot Meeus set his record straight in style on the slightly rising Avenida Zeca Alfonso.
Stage 1 would already have been Meeus' first win of the 2025 season, and after the disappointment and frustration of Wednesday's annulled day in the saddle, Friday in the Algarve gave him the triumph he had looked for so hard in Lagos two days earlier.
'I am happy there was a real line to cross this time," Meeus told reporters afterwards. "I'm glad I could finish off the team's work in the best way possible.
Asked if he considered this the first win of the season or the second, he answered "It's officially the first one. I'm really happy with it".
"I knew the finish suited me with the slightly uphill gradient, so it was just about timing." With a kilometer to go I was still a bit too far out, but I could still gain some positions towards the last corner.
"Casper van Uden (Picnic-PostNL) started his sprint quite early, but I could follow on his wheel, take the last corner in a good position and and time my move perfectly.
The division of a team between a GC contender like Primož Roglič and a sprinter like Meeus is not always a happy one, but in Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe at the Algarve it was working out well, he said.
"We had clear goals before starting for the two of us here, the two groups [in the team to support Roglič and Meeus] work well together, anyway we had to stay in front until three kilometres to the finish for Primož and then the sprinters' group could benefit from that," he pointed out.
Meeus recognised that he is "not a frequent winner", although he has taken victories as prestigious as the Champs Elysées stage of the Tour de France in 2023 - a finish often described as the unofficial 'world championships for sprinters'.
"My confidence was already good, but this is an extra boost to my motivation," he said, having taken over the sprint classification and the green jersey on Friday.
Next week, Meeus will head to Omloop Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne prior to an altitude training camp to build for the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.
But before that, he may yet add a second win to his Algarve tally on Saturday in Faro, also possibly set to end in a bunch sprint.
