LottoNL-Jumbo’s Primoz Roglic followed the strongest riders on the final Alto da Foia climb and placed third in the second stage of the Volta ao Algarve. When his aggressive team-mate Robert Gesink was caught with one kilometre to go, Roglic fought to finish third. Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) won.

“Before this race, we planned to go all in during the two mountain stages,” sports director Merijn Zeeman said after the queen stage. “Robert is here to find out how good he is and is trying to win a stage. Today was one of those two tough days, with many climbs in the end, so that offered him a chance to do that. He followed his intuition and chose to attack. That was a beautiful attack, but the collaboration in the breakaway wasn’t perfect, so they got caught with one kilometre to go.”

Until that moment, Primoz Roglic was in front of the chasing group. It was his job to mark the others to allow Gesink space. He showed he was able to follow the top riders until the finish line. “He did a terrific job,” Zeeman added. “It surprised us. We already saw that Primoz has depth in the winter. Today, he showed that he is able to stay strong among the very best climbers and that’s a magnificent performance from a man who comes from a continental team.”

“Today, I proved that I’m able to ride strongly,” the Slovenian said. “The best riders in the world are in this race and I was able to compete with them. That makes me very happy. It surprised me that I was able to stay strong. I know that I’m good, but riders like Alberto Contador and Fabio Aru were around me. I wasn’t nervous, though. When I had the chance to win the stage, I just tried to finish as well as possible. Unfortunately, two riders were faster than me.”

Roglic’s performance is one in a cluster of strong performances for Team LottoNL-Jumbo’s new riders and that gives Zeeman a good feeling. “We started this season very eagerly,” he added. “We have some feelings of revenge after last year. The start is good, but we only have one victory so far. We will need many more wins. Tomorrow, Victor Campenaerts and Primoz are going all in during the time trial. Victor wants to grab a good result and Primoz has some ambitions for the general classification.”