Meeus' words emphasize how incredibly strong Magnier was in the Algarve

Soudal Quick-Step made no secret of the fact they wanted to play Magnier in a sprint on a tricky day in Portugal. The Wolfpack controlled proceedings throughout, and in the second part of the stage they even received help from Alpecin-Premier Tech, working for Jasper Philipsen.

In the final sprint, Soudal Quick-Step had the best organisation. While Alpecin and Lidl-Trek lost one another, Magnier was launched at the right moment and he managed to beat Jordi Meeus (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe) and Pavel Bittner (the young fast man of Picnic PostNL) with room to spare.

After winning an incredible 14 times in 17 race days in the final month of 2025, Magnier is now off the mark early in 2026 too. “I’m really happy with my first win of the year, already in my second race,” he said afterwards. “I had a strong team around me — they did a great job all day.”

Magnier said he felt confident, especially once the lead-out unfolded exactly as planned. “We can all be happy with what we achieved in this stage. The leader’s jersey is a nice bonus, and I’ll wear it with pride.”

Meeus finished second, but he didn’t feel Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe did much wrong. Speaking to Eurosport (YouTube), he said: “It was a bit of chaos, but we already knew that with the headwind — everyone was still fresh.”

“We had a plan and we executed it perfectly, so I would’ve preferred to win. Maybe we even did it better than Soudal Quick-Step, but Paul was still really strong. I managed to come alongside him, but I couldn’t get past.”