Stage 3 of the Volta ao Algarve was 18km along the coast of Portugal. The windy stage was won by Fabian Cancellara and Tony Martin is now in the yellow jersey. At the 11k split, Martin had been ahead of Cancellara by 8 seconds but both he and Thomas faded in the last 7k.
“I felt good and powered everything on the road,” explained Cancellara. “The race was one-quarter technical in the first part and three-quarters with more power straights. A lot of wind, tail-wind and cross-wind; it was a really tough one.
“After yesterday’s hard stage I did not have a huge crazy expectation of going for the win. I knew I started early, and with Martin and Thomas starting so late… so I just focused on myself, on my performance. I did my usual warm-up, and I had good feelings on the trainer, and in this situation, with my experience, I knew with these feelings that I was good, and mentally this helped me.
