Euskaltel survive first Algarve stage

Euskaltel flew under the radar on Thursday's Volta ao Algarve opener, but all the riders made it safely in with the pack.

The 198,8km opening leg from Faro to Albufeira was somewhat surprisingly taken out by Blanco's Paul Martens, who managed to just hold off a charging peloton after jumping along with RadioShack's Tiago Machado inside the final kilometre.

Neither Radochla, Kocjan, Aberasturi nor anyone else managed to mix it up in the sprint, but all eight 'carrots' avoided ceding any time and are thus still in overall contention.

Results (full results here):

• (1, Paul Martens (Blanco), 5:07:29)
• 46, Ricardo Mestre, s.t.
• 47, Steffen Radochla, s.t.
• 50, Miguel Minguez, s.t.
• 57, Ricardo García, s.t.
• 63, Jorge Azanza, s.t.
• 66, Jure Kocjan, s.t.
• 82, Egoi Martínez, s.t.
• 100, Jon Aberasturi, s.t.

Photo: Euskaltel Euskadi