The 44th edition of the Volta ao Algarve (14-18 February) is trully a champions race. Among the 175 riders pre-registered by the 25 teams are 19 cyclists from the top 80 of the World Ranking, one european champion and 15 national champions.

The Algarve region, in the South of Portugal, will see 13 WorldTour teams, three Pro Continental teams and nine Portuguese continental teams. The Polish Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky), number 8 of the World Ranking, and the Belgian Phillipe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors), number 10 of the same Ranking, are among the 19 riders from the World top 80.

The European Time Trial Champion Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) will also start the race just like 15 national road race and time trial Champions.

The fight for the yellow jersey promises excitement with the presence of four riders that won the Volta ao Algarve in the past: Richie Porte (BMC Racing Team), Tony Martin (Team Katusha Alpecin), Geraint Thomas and Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky). Those names not exhaust the list of candidates that also contains cyclists as Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team), Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors), Louis Meintjes and Serge Pauwels (Team Dimension Data), Simon Spilak (Team Katusha Alpecin), Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb), Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) and Daniel Martin (UAE Team Emirates).

The list of sprinters is also valuable with Arnaud Démare (FDJ), Ben Swift (UAE Team Emirates), Carlos Barbero (Movistar Team), Dylan Groenewegen (Team LottoNL-Jumbo), Jens Debusschere (Lotto Soudal), John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) and Jurgen Roelandts (BMC Racing Team).

In addition to the men who will fight for the GC, the peloton has a loty of riders to race for the victory in the third stage, an individual time trial of 20,3 km: Ignatas Konovalovas (FDJ), Stefan Küng (BMC Racing Team), Vasil Kiryienka (Team Sky), Matthias Brändle and Ryan Mullen (Trek-Segafredo), Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) and Yves Lampaert (Quick-Step Floors).

The Portuguese fans will see some of the Portuguese riders of foreign teams, some of them fighting for the best results: Nelson Oliveira and Nuno Bico (Movistar Team), José Gonçalves and Tiago Machado (Team Katusha Alpecin), Rúben Guerreiro (Trek-Segafredo), Joaquim Silva and Rafael Reis (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) are registered by their teams.

The Portuguese teams worked very hard during the winter and want to show themselves against the top teams of the World.

Riders of World Ranking top 80
8.º Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky)
10.º Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors)
11.º Daniel Martin (UAE Team Emirates)
18.º Arnaud Démare (FDJ)
23.º Richie Porte (BMC Racing Team)
28.º Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo)
33.º Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo)
34.º John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo)
39.º Dylan Teuns (BMC Racing Team)
50.º Dylan Groenewegen (Team LottoNL-Jumbo)
43.º Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Dimension Data)
55.º Jasper de Buyst (Lotto Soudal)
65.º Geraint Thomas (Team Sky)
66.º Jens Keukeleire (Lotto Soudal)
68.º Simon Spilak (Team Katusha Alpecin)
71.º Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors)
72.º Zdenek Stybar (Quick-Step Floors)
79.º Louis Meintjes (Team Dimension Data)
80.º Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team)

Champions
Aleksejs Saramotins, Latvia time trial champion
Arnaud Démare, France road race champion
Bob Jungels, Luxembourg road race champion
Domingos Gonçalves, Portugal time trial champion
Edvald Boasson Hagen, Norway time trial champion
Ignatas Konovalovas, Lithuania time trial champion
Jan Polanc, Slovenia time trial champion
Michal Kwiatkowski, Polish time trial champion
Ramon Sinkeldam, Netherlands road race champion
Rúben Guerreiro, Portugal road race champion
Ryan Mullen, Ireland road race and time trial champion
Stefan Kung, Switzerland time trial champion
Tony Martin, Germany time trial champion
Yves Lampaert, Belgium time trial champion
Victor Campenaerts, European time trial champion
Zdenek Stybar, Czech road race champion