It will be a “more competitive” race that will bring together 20 cyclists from the world's top 100, one more than last year. The 45th Tour of the Algarve by bicycle will be on the road from the 20th to the 24th of February and, due to the television broadcast by Eurosport and TVI24, will reach 150 million homes.
A algarvia, which was presented this Thursday, February 7th, is, increasingly, an event with a high media impact at international level.
So it is not surprising that João Fernandes, president of the Algarve Tourism Region (RTA), referred to Volta as being «an event of enormous importance that projects the region and makes it known, in low season».
This contributes to "enhancing the desire to visit the destination by tourists from all over the world," he added.
The 45th Volta ao Algarve will be broadcast live on five continents, highlighting the coverage of the Eurosport channel, which will show the images of the Algarve in 148 million homes. In addition to this media coverage, the teams and runners present at the algarvia add 13,3 million followers on the main social networks.
In this edition of Volta ao Algarve, 12 of the 18 existing WorldTour teams will participate, among which the three best in the ranking 2018 world championships: Deceuninck-Quick Step (Belgium), Team Sky (UK) and Bora-hansgrohe (Germany).
These three are joined by nine other first division teams: CCC Team (Poland), Groupama-FDJ (France), Lotto Soudal (Belgium), Team Dimension Data (South Africa), Team Katusha Alpecin (Switzerland), Team Jumbo -Visma (Netherlands), Team Sunweb (Germany), Trek-Segafredo (United States of America) and UAE Team Emirates (United Arab Emirates).
The 45th Volta ao Algarve will feature four teams of professional continental category, the second cycling world class. Among these, the first two of the ranking Europe Tour by teams in 2018, Wanty-Groupe Gobert (Belgium) and Cofidis, Solutions Crédits (France), joined by Caja Rural-Seguros RGA (Spain) and W52-FC Porto (Portugal).
The platoon is completed by the eight Portuguese continental teams: Aviludo-Louletano, Efapel, LA Alumínios-LA Sport, Miranda-Mortágua, Rádio Popular-Boavista, Sporting-Tavira, UD Oliveirense-InOutBuild and Vito-Feirense-PNB.
This time, there won't be, in principle, a big name competing in the Volta ao Algarve, like Michal Kwiatkowski, winner last year, or Geraint Thomas, who won the Tour of France 2018.
Even so, the presence of 20 top 100 runners (Fábio Aru and Enric Mas are examples) is guaranteed, in an enviable range for any cycling event.
The fact is that, said Delmino Pereira, president of the Portuguese Cycling Federation, competition from other starting season races «is increasing», giving the examples of the Middle East and Colombia.
Even so, «the truth is that Volta ao Algarve has defended itself very well» and there is «a special taste of the great teams to participate in the competition», he considered.
The Portuguese emblems, such as the Algarve Sporting-Tavira and Louletano/Aviludo, are also increasingly betting on the Algarve, «with the ambition to win».
The competition will therefore be «more competitive and more open», with Delmino Pereira being certain: «whoever wins the Volta ao Algarve will win other events, throughout the season, on the major world stages».
As for the stages, the start takes place in Portimão, a city that has not hosted the Volta ao Algarve since 2012. It will be from there that the first stage starts, the longest in the competition: 199,1 kilometers to Lagos. Expected to be a arrival at sprint, in the same place where, in the last two years, Fernando Gaviria and Dylan Groenwegen won.
The second stage starts in Almodôvar and ends at the highest point in the Algarve, Fóia, in the municipality of Monchique. The trip will have 187,4 kilometers and an accumulated total of 3600 meters. The goal coincides with a first-rate mountain count, where, in recent years, Daniel Martin and Michal Kwiatkowski have triumphed.
The arrival to Fóia will be made by a slope with 8 kilometers of climb and an average slope of 6,3%.
The third stage will be an individual time trial of 20,3 kilometers, starting and ending in Lagoa. The stage will be played on the same route as last year, in which Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas won.
Os sprinters they will have another opportunity on the fourth day, on the 198,3 km connection between Albufeira and Tavira. Similar to what happened in the last two years, when André Greipel and Dylan Groenewegen won, thousands of spectators are expected to watch the predictable dispute between some of the best sprinters in the world squad.
As has been tradition, the Volta ao Algarve ends at the top of Malhão, in the municipality of Loulé. The fifth and final stage will have 173,5 kilometers, starting from Faro and arriving at Malhão. The goal coincides with a second-rate mountain prize, a short but very demanding climb – 2,5 kilometers with an average slope of 9,9% - where, in the last two years, Amaro Antunes and Michal Kwiatkowski have prevailed.
With this route, the Volta ao Algarve will pass through the 16 municipalities of the Algarve. For Jorge Botelho, president of AMAL – Algarve Intermunicipal Community, this is also for that reason a “mega event to promote the region”.
“We should be proud of the race and of supporting this biggest off-season product that is cycling. The Municipal Councils realized that this event is increasingly complete», he added.
As for Custódio Moreno, regional director of the Portuguese Sports and Youth Institute, he considered that, during the five days of Volta ao Algarve (20th to 24th February), the «sun will shine even more» in the region.
The Algarve is “going to swarm and the entire region will be more dynamic, with sport passing through people's homes,” he explained.
The invitation to generalized sports practice has two main moments during the race. The Algarve Granfondo Cofidis is the one with the greatest notoriety, bringing together around 800 participants, from more than 10 countries, on the 24th of February, in Loulé.
This will be an event that also assumes a social vocation as it will be planted a tree in the Serra de Monchique, by each participant.
Another highlight will be the Women's Algarve Tour, on the 23rd of February, in Albufeira. This will be a low difficulty tour, just for women.
The social integration of people with disabilities will also take place in this Tour. On the 24th, moments before departure, in Faro, four blind people will do a paracycling demonstration.
This year, another new feature is the Volta ao Algarve Kids, a cycling route for children, which will operate in Portimão, in the hours before the start of the first stage of the European City of Sport, and which will also be available at Mar Shopping, in Loulé, on the 16th, 17th, 23rd and 24th of February.
The shopping center will also host the photography exhibition “A Volta ao Algarve eo Território”, in a collection of images by photographer João Fonseca.
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