Milan Fretin (Cofidis) celebrates victory on stage 4(Image credit: Getty Images)
A general view of the peloton prior to the 51st Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta Stage 4 (Image credit: Getty Images)
A general view of the peloton passing through a landscape during the 51st Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta Stage 4 (Image credit: Getty Images)
Nils Politt and UAE Team Emirates-XRG leads the peloton during the 51st Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta Stage 4(Image credit: Getty Images)
A general view of the peloton passing through a landscape during the 51st Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta Stage 4 (Image credit: Getty Images)
Thymen Arensman and Team INEOS Grenadiers competes during the 51st Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta Stage 4 (Image credit: Getty Images)
Nils Politt and UAE Team Emirates-XRG lead the peloton during the 51st Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta Stage 4(Image credit: Getty Images)
Warre Vangheluwe (Soudal Quick-Step), Gorka Sorarrain (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Johan Jacobs (Groupama-FDJ), German Nicolás Tivani (Aviludo-Louletano-Loulé) competes in the breakaway during the 51st Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta Stage 4(Image credit: Getty Images)
Warre Vangheluwe (Soudal Quick-Step), Gorka Sorarrain (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Johan Jacobs (Groupama-FDJ), German Nicolás Tivani (Aviludo-Louletano-Loulé) competes in the breakaway during the 51st Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta Stage 4(Image credit: Getty Images)
An alternate view of the breakaway during stage 4(Image credit: Getty Images)
Race leader Jan Christen among his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates(Image credit: Getty Images)
The sprinters dash for the finish line(Image credit: Getty Images)
Milan Fretin (Cofidis) secured his second win of the year on stage 4 at Volta ao Algarve after a patient and well-timed uphill sprint in Faro.
The Belgian bided his time and waited to launch his sprint until just 100 metres to go passing his fading rivals to take the win ahead of runner-up Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and third-placed Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers).
The win marks Fretin's second of the season after his triumph at the Clásica de Almería last week. The 23-year-old hit the front after Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) and Arnaud de Lie (Lotto) launched the sprint at the end of the 175km stage.
The pair, sprinting after EF Education-EasyPost and Intermarché-Wanty provided the lead-out, jumped up the right side of the finishing straight just as Fretin flew up the centre line to secure the victory.
Behind him, as Girmay and De Lie faded, Ganna and Meeus sprinted around them to secure second and third place, respectively.
"This victory is fabulous. It’s my second victory in a week, it’s completely crazy. The stage was tough, we saw that it was going to be difficult for the sprinters to hold on until the end," Fretin said.
"I managed to manage my effort well. About twenty kilometres from the finish, I felt that I was capable of aiming for victory. I concentrated well and gave it my all until the finish. It’s really nice.”
Yellow jersey Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) finished safely in the bunch and held his overall race lead. Ahead of Sunday's concluding time trial, he lies four seconds ahead of his teammate João Almeida and seven seconds ahead of Laurens De Plus (Ineos Grenadiers).
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) fell victim to a late scare just as the race hit 3km to go. The Dane suffered a mechanical and drifted off the back of the field, receiving a quick bike change before cruising to the finish line at the same time as the rest of the field. He holds his fifth place overall at 20 seconds back heading into stage 5.
How it unfolded
Stage 4 began with a few showers but warm temperatures in the town of Albufeira, the scene of the key time trial in last year's Volta ao Algarve.
This time around, rather than leaving one by one, 163 riders began the 175km stage, with Arnaud de Lie's lead-out man Jarrad Drizners (Lotto) and Portuguese Olympic track star Iurí Leitão (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), who crashed late on stage 3, amongst the non-starters.
Very early on, four riders formed the breakaway of the day, Belgian Warre Vangheluwe (Soudal-QuickStep), Johan Jacobs (Groupama-FDJ), Leitão's teammate Gorka Sorrain, and the mountains classification leader, German Nicolas Tivani (Aviludo-Louletano-Loulé).
Tivani added a useful stack of points when the four went over the second-category Alto do Malhão after 40km, the climb set to be revisited by the peloton as the summit of Sunday's final time trial.
But for the quartet, the bigger question was whether their large margin of nearly eight minutes would be enough stay away over the series of climbs in the finale and perhaps fight for victory in Algarve's third and last road stage of 2025.
If the presence of two WorldTour riders in the breakaway of the day was already a novelty in this year's Algarve – so far they've been exclusively made up of ProTeam and Continental racers – the next unexpected ingredient emerged when a Bahrain Victorious duo, Vlad Van Mechelen and Afonso Eulalio, counter-attacked from the peloton.
After 120km, by the foot of the third-category Picota, the two had been swept up again and the four-man breakaway tackled the first of the three late climbs on the stage still three minutes ahead.
Impressively, despite the noted rise in pace by EF Education-EasyPost, Visma-Lease A Bike and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe behind, it had little impact, with the four maintaining almost all of their advantage by the intermediate sprint at Loulé, 40km from the finish.
The addition of Intermarché-Wanty and Tudor to the chase on the approach to the final two climbs of the day, the third-category Santa Barbara and fourth-category Bordeira proved more effective in cutting the gap, though.
Tivani, conscious his main goal was to rack up as many mountain points as possible, put in much of the spadework on the approach and the four continued to work well on the ascent as Visma-Lease A Bike shredded the pack behind.
Just 30 seconds separated the stage leaders from the Visma-led peloton by the summit of the Santa Barbara and if the road had followed with a clear descent, it might yet have allowed them to stay away.
Instead, the false flats and fourth-category ascent of Bordeira proved a tricky combination to handle, even if the peloton briefly eased back a little to ensure they reeled the break in as late as possible.
But when the road steepened notably on the Bordeira, Visma turned up the throttle again and with 18km to go, the break was over and a 60-strong lead peloton began a breakneck descent back to the coast and the finish.
Tivani was crowned the most combative rider of the day for his trouble as the break was brought back 17km from the finish. Thereafter, a reduced peloton reset with Visma-Lease a Bike, Lidl-Trek, Intermarché-Wanty, EF Education-EasyPost and Picnic-PostNL lined out at the front of the race on the false flat and fast run-in to Faro.
Tiesj Benoot delivered his Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Wout van Aert to the front with 3km to go, as the peloton jostled for position while exiting a highway ramp and then onto the small city roads to the finish line.
Up front, the sprint squads were lining up their lead-out trains ready for the finish, and, at the end of the rapid run-in, it was Fretin who was left to celebrate.
Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.
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