The two Portuguese cyclists who make up the world's top 100, Rui Costa (Movistar) and Tiago Machado (RadioShack-Leopard), are the Portuguese stars in the 39th Volta ao Algarve squad, which will take place between 14 and 17 February .
In addition to these two, the race's peloton will have six more national cyclists representing foreign teams, from the forefront of the world.
Rui Costa, elected Portuguese Sportsman of 2012, the year he was tenth in the WorldTour Ranking, and Tiago Machado, number 57 in the World in 2012 and tenth in the world after the first race in 2013, bring together the highest national hopes for triumph in the Volta ao Algarve, since in the previous edition they were both in the discussion of the yellow jersey until the last day.
The 39th Volta ao Algarve will also be the opportunity to see on national roads other luxury emigrants of Portuguese cycling.
The 2011 Tournament winner, Ricardo Mestre, running in his native region, will want to give a special shine to the new jersey he is now wearing, the Euskaltel-Euskadi jersey.
Sérgio Paulinho and Bruno Pires, from the Saxo-Tinkoff team, will also have the opportunity to look for an outstanding individual result.
The national champion Manuel Cardoso (Caja Rural) is one of the men to take into account if the first two stages are decided to sprint, bringing in the team the climber André Cardoso, who this year has already noted that he is in shape in the Tour of San Luis, Argentina.
Nelson Oliveira will be one of Tiago Machado's supporters at RadioShack-Leopard and will have a say in the time trial on the last day.
Cândido Barbosa, sports director of Volta ao Algarve, says that “It is a privilege for the race to bring together the best Portuguese cyclists of today. The Volta ao Algarve is an event for the international stars that it manages to captivate, year after year, but it is also one of the rare moments when the Portuguese can
see the best Portuguese runners competing on national territory. That was one of the aspects that deserved our special attention since the first hour”.
Since 2006, no Portuguese cyclist has won a stage or the overall individual of the competition. This lack of victories could be broken in 2013, but the outside competition is heavy and won't make the task any easier.
Pre-registered names include Tony Martin, Mark Cavendish and Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), Thomas de Gendt and Lieuww Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM), Denis Menchov and Alexandr Klobnev (Katusha), Andreas Klöden (RadioShack-Leopard ), Darwin Atapuma (Colombia), Steven Kruijswijk and Theo Bos (Blanco).
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