Filippo Ganna during the finale stage 5 time trial on Malhão at Volta ao Algarve(Image credit: Getty Images)
Wout Van Aert during the finale stage 5 time trial on Malhão at Volta ao Algarve(Image credit: Getty Images)
Wout Van Aert during the finale stage 5 time trial on Malhão at Volta ao Algarve(Image credit: Getty Images)
Jakob Soderqvist during the finale stage 5 time trial on Malhão at Volta ao Algarve(Image credit: Getty Images)
Oier Lazkano during the finale stage 5 time trial on Malhão at Volta ao Algarve(Image credit: Getty Images)
Remi Cavagna during the finale stage 5 time trial on Malhão at Volta ao Algarve(Image credit: Getty Images)
Primoz Roglic during the stage 5 time trial at Volta ao Algarve(Image credit: Getty Images)
Joao Almeida during the stage 5 time trial at Volta ao Algarve(Image credit: Getty Images)
Laurens De Plus during the stage 5 time trial at Volta ao Algarve(Image credit: Getty Images)
Jan Christen in the stage 5 time trial at Volta ao Algarve(Image credit: Getty Images)
Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and race winner Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) on the final GC podium at the Volta ao Algarve(Image credit: Getty Images)
Laurens De Plus (Ineos Grenadiers) race winner Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) on the final GC podium at the Volta ao Algarve(Image credit: Getty Images)
Race winner Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) on the final GC podium at the Volta ao Algarve(Image credit: Getty Images)
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) secured the overall title at the Volta ao Algarve after storming to victory on the finale 19.6km time trial that finished atop Alto do Malhão.
Vingegaard covered the time trial with the fastest time of 28:25 with an average speed of 41.4kph beating his teammate and runner-up Wout van Aert by 11 seconds while Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) finished 14 seconds back and in third place on the day.
Vingegaard started the day in sixth place in the overall standings, 20 seconds behind the overnight leader Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), but his dominant performance in the time trial saw him leap into the overall victory in his first race of the 2025 season.
The two-time Tour de France winner won the overall title by 14 seconds ahead of runner-up João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who finished sixth on the stage, and 23 seconds ahead of third-placed Laurens De Plus (Ineos Grenadiers), who finished eighth in on the day. While Almeida and De Plus were able to hold their podium places in the overall standings, Christen slipped to 10th overall.
Elsewhere, Vingegaard's former teammate Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) finished in 12th place in the time trial, 50 seconds down on the Dane. He ends his race in eighth overall at 53 seconds.
"I'm, of course, very happy. It was a very good day for me, for the team," Vingegaard said after his win. "Of course, I'm very happy to take the overall victory and take the revenge from the other days. So, of course, I'm super happy and proud. My daughter said earlier today that I had to win today, so that gave me extra motivation to win for her."
"It was a very nice TT. I really enjoyed it today. I always like TTs like this and, of course, it also suits me well and it depends on if you have good legs or not. If you don't have great legs then it's not a nice TT, and can feel like the opposite. Today I had great legs and I'm happy to finish it off," he added.
"I'm feeling good and happy to do very well today. I think I did a very good time trial. I'm happy, proud and looking forward to the next part of the season."
How it unfolded
The first rider, Pedro Andrade (Feirense-Beeceler) rolled down the start ramp at 1331 local time to tackle a course which had a far more undulating first 16 kilometres than the route book profile suggested before the definitive ascent. Amongst the top-level non-starters was Arnaud De Lie (Lotto), suffering from allergies and opted to miss the final day.
Carlos Miguel Salgueiro (APHotels & Resorts - Tavira-SC Farense) pulled clear of all the early finishers with a time of 32:20, nearly 30 seconds faster than his closest pursuer. But former Portuguese National Time Trial Champion Rafael Reis (Anicolor-Tien21) was the first to go under 31 minutes, clocking a time of 30:44.
Reis himself was beaten by the reigning Portuguese TT champion, Ivo Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), the first of the WorldTour racers to set a top time when he crossed the finish line at Malhão in 30:33, only to be quickly ousted from the hot seat by Scotland's Callum Thornley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
The Edinburgh racer was provisional fourth at the intermediate time check but - as could be expected from a former mountains classification winner in the Tour of Britain – made the most of his climbing abilities to deliver a searing ascent of the Malhao, going a full ten seconds faster.
The top specialist were coming to the fore now, and after Calum Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost) smashed his compatriot's mark and became the first rider under 30 minutes with a time of 29:36, he was rapidly overhauled by Lidl-Trek's Swedish National TT Champion Jakob Söderqvist, who clocked 29:04.
His Italian counterpart Filippo Ganna was unable to close the gap by more than 12 seconds, suffering badly on the final ascent. But Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease A Bike) was much more at home on both, sharply contrasting, segments of the course, going five seconds faster than Söderqvist at the second checkpoint and more than doubling that to a stunning finishing time of 28:36.
After missing out on two bunch sprints, could he take his first time trial victory since the 2023 National Championships? The air at the sunlit finish line on Malhao was buzzing with the idea, particularly as top specialists like Stefan Küng and Remi Cavagna (both Groupama-FDJ) could not come close. Antonio Tiberi (Lidl-Trek) was just three seconds behind, but for more than an hour, the Italian was the Belgian's most dangerous challenger.
One big challenger for Van Aert was undoubtedly Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), riding his one time trial before the Giro d'Italia and keen to make use of Algarve, as his team previously told Cyclingnews, as a serious test. However, Roglič was already more than 30 seconds off the pace at the first checkpoint behind the fastest time of Filippo Ganna, and he finally completed the course 38 seconds down on Van Aert.
Vingegaard was another story. Fifth fastest at checkpoint 1, six seconds down on Ganna, and cutting through each corner faultlessly, Vingegaard looked utterly focused as he blasted along the course and moved into fourth quickest by the second.
Opting, unlike Van Aert not to change to a TT bike for the climb, it barely mattered, from beginning to end, Vingegaard looked to be totally in his element as he powered towards the third time trial victory of his career.
At the finish, the timings confirmed Vingegaard's excellent result, eleven seconds faster than Van Aert. What remained, of course, was how the UAE's three riders ahead of Vingegaard on GC could defend their position.
A week after winning the Figuieras Champions Classic, Antonio Morgado crossed the line 1:05 down, but as a one-day specialist that was perhaps not so surprising. More unexpectedly, Joao Almeida, however, was also well off the pace, crossing the line 30 seconds down, while Jan Christen, already 33 seconds down on Vingegaard at the second checkpoint, was already out of the picture.
As a result, Vingegaard claimed his first two victories of the season, providing both a strong answer to the question marks that emerged after his defeat on the Alto da Foia, and also sending an impressive warning shot across the bows of Tadej Pogačar after his UAE triumph. The Slovenian star is clearly in impressive form in 2024, but Vingegaard is prepared to give him a run for his money, too.
Kirsten Frattini is the Deputy Editor of Cyclingnews, overseeing the global racing content plan.
Kirsten has a background in Kinesiology and Health Science. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races, reporting on the WorldTour, Spring Classics, Tours de France, World Championships and Olympic Games.
She began her sports journalism career with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. In 2018, Kirsten became Women's Editor – overseeing the content strategy, race coverage and growth of women's professional cycling – before becoming Deputy Editor in 2023.
