The evocatively-titled Avenida dos Descobrimentos in Lagos owes its name to the town`s past as a shipbuilding hub during the Portuguese Age of Discovery, and the harbourfront boulevard hosted the finish of stage 1 of the Volta ao Algarve, where Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-QuickStep) suggested that his winter preparation has been watertight by winning on his first race day of the new season. A reduced leading group contested the sprint finish in Lagos after a crash split the peloton with a shade over seven kilometres remaining, but Jakobsen never gave the impression of navigating troubled waters. In the finishing straight, he watched as Simone Consonni (UAE Team Emirates) floundered after opening the sprint from distance, and then cruised past at a considerable rate of knots to claim the honours. Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) took second on the stage ahead of Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe), but neither man ever looked like overhauling Jakobsen once he hit the front within sight of the line. The Dutchman notched up seven wins as a neo-professional last year, including a breakout win at Scheldeprijs, but he is off the mark almost a full month earlier this time around.ADVERTISEMENT `This is the best start you can have, I think,` Jakobsen said afterwards. `I did a good winter, I trained with the team and that was a lot of fun. I had good support at home from my family and the team. I`m very grateful to start the season with a win. `After training all the winter, you never really know how good you are, but if you can win a sprint here, I think that shows that you did a good winter. The team also is in good shape and we are very happy with this.` His team clocked up some 73 wins in 2018 and has begun the new campaign in a similar vein, with wins in Australia, Argentina, Colombia and France in recent weeks. Jakobsen, for his part, was on a training camp in the Algarve earlier this month and availed of the opportunity to reconnoitre his first race of the season. ...
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