Once again, an impressive sprint brought Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick Step) and Danny Van Poppel (Intermarché – Wanty – Gobert Matériaux) to the finish line with Bennett winning by a small margin. Michael Morkov (Deceuninck-Quick Step) came in third.
In todays’ stage, the riders faced 203,1 kilometers under intense heat all the way from Faro, the capital of the Algarve, to Tavira. The riders were only 17 kilometers into the stage when Jetse Bol (Burgos-BH), Julen Irizar (Euskatel-Euskadi), Javier Moreno (Efapel) e Henrique Casimiro (Kelly-Simoldes-UDO) tried to escape from the group, quickly setting a comfortable advantage of five minutes.
Meanwhile, in the peloton, team Ineos Grenadiers was leading the way along with Deceuninck-Quick Step and Bora-hansgrohe, who joined later to start the chase. After this, and during the last two hours of the stage, the gap to the breakaway started to go down to around one minute.
At the head of the race, Julen Irizar was dropped by Jetse Bol, Javier Moreno e Henrique Casimiro, while back at the peloton Deceuninck-Quick Step was leading the way at a high pace. The 45km/h of speed were too much for the breakaway that ended at 11 kilometers to go.
The attacks started with Peio Goikoetxea (Euskatel-Euskadi) and Gonçalo Amado (Antarte-Feirense), but the leaders of the main group were quick to make it come to an end.
The riders arrived all together to the finish in Tavira and, once again, Sam Benett was at another level and got his second victory in Volta ao Algarve. The sprint was even closer than in Portimão, with Danny van Poppel crossing the line right behind the Deceuninck- Quick Step rider. Michael Morkov (Deceuninck-Quick Step) managed to close the top 3. This result left Sam Bennett still wearing the Crédito Agrícola Green Jersey.
Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) will also be wearing the Turismo do Algarve Yellow Jersey, as he arrived in the bunch, along with João Rodrigues, who has the Lusíadas Blue Jersey, and Sean Quinn, with the IPDJ White Jersey.
Tomorrow will be a decisive day in Lagoa, with a 20,3 km individual time trial, that can change the general classification.