Max Schachmann put himself in contention for a top ten finish here.
Alto da Foia – a climb used for the first time at the Volta ao Algarve in 1977 – featured again as the first uphill finish of the Portuguese race, but this time, the peloton tackled it from a different side, longer (8.9 kilometers) and much harder (6.3%).
Paul Magnier began the day in yellow after his crushing sprint victory on the opening stage, and Soudal Quick-Step honoured the jersey by setting a steady tempo at the front of the bunch until the closing part of the day, when the GC teams took over to set up their leaders for the last ascent. Their tempo ended up shredding the group to pieces, only three riders being left to fight for victory, which went to Paul Seixas (Decathlon CGA CGM).
Maximilian Schachmann finished some 40-odd seconds later, not far from the top ten, and thanks to this solid effort, he is now 12th overall. The German, who finished fifth here on the GC last year, had a good chance of improving his classification on Friday, when the race schedules a 20km individual time trial in Vilamoura.
Photo credit: ©Dario Belingheri / Getty Images
