Thrilling chase: Second stage win for Cort Nielsen at the Tour of the Algarve

After Magnus Cort Nielsen had already won the second day of the 2023 Tour of the Algarve on the Alto da Foiathe Dane from EF Education EasyPost also on Friday after a thrilling final.

Six riders pull away on stage 3 of the Tour of the Algarve

Initially, a breakaway group of six riders set the tone on the 203.1 kilometres from Faro to Tavira: Goncalo Amado (Tavfer-Ovos Matinados-Mortagua), Pedro Andrade (ABTF Betao-Feirense), Daniel Viegas (Aviludo-Louletano-Loule Concelho), Aleksandr Grigorev (Efapel), Fabio Costa (Glassdrive-Q8-Anicolor) and Guillermo Garcia (Radio Popular-Paredes-Boavista) broke away from the peloton early on. Their breakaway attempt ended around 30 kilometres before the finish.

Shortly afterwards, a new lead group formed. 25 kilometres before the finish Ineos Grenadiers with Filippo Ganna and Thomas Pidcock set the pace before the intermediate sprint, the overall leader Magnus Cort Nielsen was alert and secured 1st place and thus a time bonus of six seconds. But that was not enough.

Ganna, Cort Nielsen, Pidcock & Co. pull through

After the intermediate sprint, Cort Nielsen, Ganna, Pidcock and Co. continued on and delivered a thrilling chase with the peloton. Rui Costa (Intermarche- Circus-Wanty), Valentin Madouas (Groupama - FDJ) and Tobias Foss (Jumbo-Visma) accompanied the trio.

Around 500 metres before the finish, the peloton was able to catch up, but Cort Nielsen refused to give up and put in a brilliant sprint to the finish, finishing ahead of Ganna and Jordi Meeus (Bora-Hansgrohe) in its favour.

Tour of the Algarve 2023: Stage 3 - Result

1. Magnus Cort Nielsen (EF Education EasyPost) 5:05:14
2. Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) +0:00
3. Jordi Meeus (Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:00
4. Paul Penhoet (Groupama-FDJ) +0:00
5. Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) +0:00
6. Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates) +0:00
7. Rui Costa (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty) +0:00
8. Tobias Foss (Jumbo-Visma) +0:00
9. Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) +0:00
10. Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ) +0:00

The overall standings of the Tour of the Algarve

1. Magnus Cort Nielsen (EF Education EasyPost) 15:01:18
2. Rui Costa (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty) +0:18
3. Ilan van Wilder (Soudal - Quick Step) +0:20
4. Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) +0:26
5. Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:26
6. Thomas Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) +0:26
7. Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) +0:27
8. Tobias Foss (Jumbo-Visma) +0:28
9. Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) +0:28
10. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +0:28

>> All stages of the Tour of the Algarve 2023 at a glance

The Tour of the Algarve continues on Saturday with stage 4: 177.9 kilometres from Albufeira to the mountain finish on the Alto do Malhao.