Tour of Algarve: Tom Pidcock slips from first to seventh as Dani Martinez wins title

Dani Martinez won a “surprise” title after finishing fourth in the time trial

Britain’s Tom Pidcock slipped from first to seventh on the final day of the Tour of Algarve as Ineos Grenadiers team-mate Dani Martinez won the title.

Pidcock won the penultimate stage four to hold the overall lead but his time-trial inexperience showed as he placed 19th in the race against the clock.

Colombia’s Martinez finished fourth on the 24.4km course, enough to land him the title by two seconds over another Ineos team-mate, Filippo Ganna.

Martinez said his win was a “surprise”.

“This morning, everyone on the team said ‘okay, Filippo is number one for GC [general classification]’,” he said.

“Day by day, I was feeling better, but today was a surprise for me.”

Groupama-FDJ’s Stefan Kung won the Lagoa time trial in a time of 29 minutes 34 seconds, four seconds ahead of Soudal Quick-Step’s Remi Cavagna.

Belgian rider Ilan van Wilder, also of Soudal Quick-Step, rounded off the overall podium in third, 15 seconds behind Martinez.

Pidcock, the Olympic mountain bike champion and 2022 world cyclo-cross champion, was competing in his first race of the year for Ineos.

“It was pretty tricky. I couldn’t really get the power out in my TT position. It shows I didn’t really spend enough time on this bike yet,” he said.

“My heart rate was probably 20 beats less than what I was at yesterday on the final climb, so I couldn’t get everything out.”