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Anticipation is building as we await the arrival of the big man – Filippo Ganna is set to begin his ride in about five minutes.
Luca Giaimi – yet another young talent from the seemingly bottomless pit at UAE Team Emirates – has gone third fastest at the finish, 38 seconds down.
Price-Pejtersen has a challenger in Jonathan Vervenne…but he’s fallen short at the finish, by 10 seconds. Still, that’s an eye-catching ride from the 22-year-old Soudal-QuickStep rider.
Away from the Algarve, the Giro today announced the five teams that will receive a wildcard invitation for the race in May – have a read of our full report on who will be there and who won’t.
Rafael Rais is second quickest at the finish, but posed no threat to Price-Pejtersen, who he fell 42 seconds short of.
Johan Price-Pejtersen, on his way to setting the fastest time.
Nico Denz has just arrived at the finish with the second fastest time, but is still a whole 46 seconds slower than Price-Pejtersen.
Here are the start times of some of the non-GC riders who could be in contention for the stage win today (all GMT).
Jakob Söderqvist: 14:17
Stefan Küng: 14:45
As expected, Johan Price-Pejtersen has set the new fastest time at the finish, a whole 1:29 seconds quicker than Oded Kogud, who had only recently beaten Narcisco’s time.
We’ll get a better idea of how that shapes up against the other stage contenders when some of them begin their rides in about half an hour or so.
NEW FASTEST TIME – JOHAN PRICE-PEJTERSEN
Filippo Ganna is the favourite for the win today. The time to remember is 14:26, about half an hour from now, when he will begin his ride.
All eyes are on Johan Price-Pejtersen. The Dane is the first real specialist against the clock to start, and is comfortably the fastest at the first time check, 1:20 faster than Narcisco, and 0-47 seconds up on Oded Kogut.
Diogo Narcisco has just posted the fastest time at the finish, and by some distance – 38 seconds quicker than Dias.
Laurens De Plus has just rolled off the start ramp. He might have fancied his chances of a strong ride today, and been up there on GC, but endured a crash earlier in the race that has seen him tumble well down the classification.
He won’t be making his way to the hot seat, however, as Daniel Dias has just arrived in a time 30 seconds quicker.
Our first rider has arrived at he finish line – Francisco Pereira, in a time of 30 seconds.
The three jersey wearers, on the podium yesterday – Ayuso in yellow, Seixas in green and Contte in blue.
Nine riders have gone through the first time check so far – all of them Portuguese. Diogo Narcisco is the fastest of them so far, 12 seconds quicker than Dias.
While this stage is beginning, the fifth stage of the UAE Tour has just finished – read all about it here.
The first couple of riders have gone through the time check, which is positioned half way into the stage. Daniel Dias arrived there in 14:37, 32 seconds quicker than Francisco Pereira.
Neither rain nor wind looks set to be a factor today, in what is a mild, sunny day in the Algarve.
For both Ayuso and Seixas, the seven seconds they have might not be enough against as strong a time trialist as João Almeida.
The stage is underway, with Francisco Pereira the first rider off the start ramp.
TIME TRIAL BEGINS
Seixas may have a lot of talent, but will that be enough to defeat the much more accomplished Juan Ayuso? Ayuso is a very good rider against the clock – his last overall stage victory, at the 2025 Tirreno-Adritaico, came off the back of a flat opening time trial in which only Filippo Ganna went faster than him.
We’re still learning a lot about yesterday’s winner Paul Seixas, but the early signs are that the 19-year old’s formidable talents also include time trialing. He won not one but two stages against the clock during his overall triumph at the Tour de l’Avenir last year, and at professional level was 3rd in the French national championships, and 16th at the Worlds.
The 19.5km route features rolling roads, but no climbs, and has some quite technical sections amid urban roads. There’s scope here for the specialists to put some significant time into the GC rivals less skilled against the clock.
The first of the day’s 165 riders will sett off in just under 20 minutes. You can find the full list of start times here.
Despite their superiority yesterday, the GC is by no means a two horse race. João Almeida lurks menacingly in third overall at just seven seconds, and, as such an accomplished time trialist, will fancy his chances of gaining that today.
Yesterday’s stage shaped the GC hierarchy, with the top climbers coming to the fore on what proved to be a very selective final climb. Paul Seixas took the stage win, but there’s nothing to separate him from Juan Ayuso at the top of the GC, both riders being on the same time. Therefore today, every second will count.
Today we’re in Vilamoura for the race’s individual time trial, which could be the defining stage in the GC race.
Hello and welcome to stage three of the Volta ao Algarve!
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