Despite his late appearance as part of the lead-out train that led Fabio Jacobsen to victory on the first stage of the Algarve pass, Lemko Evenpoel's day was not over when he crossed the finish line in Lagos. Upon arriving at the Quick Step Alfa Vinyl team bus, he climbed onto his time trial bike and crouched into an aerodynamic position for a warm-down.

This time, the Volta ao Algarve will likely be decided by Saturday's individual time trial (32.2 km to Tavira).

On Wednesday, he dutifully paced himself on the turbo trainer before accepting the white jersey for best young rider on the podium.

"Obviously I train a lot on the time trial bike," Evenpoel explained to reporters at the start in the Portimão marina. Last month I couldn't train on the time trial bike. But yesterday I was able to ride. Today, after the stage, I'm going to do a few light laps on the roller-bike to get used to riding a longer distance, but of course, I'll be riding for the time trial. But of course I have been training specifically for the time trial, with long climbs and small climbs.

And again, Evenpoel has most kinds of effort in his legs. Late Wednesday afternoon, as the sun began to dip into the Bensafrim River, the young man leaped to the front of the peloton, which had been whittled down to about 30 by two crashes in the finale. A surge on the final rocky section before Lagos threatened to further erode this dwindling group for a time. In the end, he assisted Jacobsen to his third win of the season, and finished the stage himself in seventh place.

"He's already done it in Valencia," said Jacobsen. 'He has also grown a lot in this kind of work.' But of course, it's all about Lemko. He is one of the top talents in international cycling, and if he leads out, the race will go fast."

Evenpoel's presence at the front of the peloton has caused all sorts of panic among his peers since he entered the World Tour as a teenager in 2019. For example, when he flapped his wings thoughtfully in the middle of that year's Grand Prix de Montréal, it was striking to see the group tense up in anticipation of the impending hurricane.

However, during that apprenticeship, I had my doubts about Evenpoel's ability to navigate through and push through a 200-person peloton, given that he had raced for only two years at the underage level, mostly alone and minutes from the front. This should not come as a surprise, considering that he had been racing at the underage level for only two years, mostly alone and minutes from the front. Steele argues that the gaps in Evenpoel's arsenal are being filled by experience.

"He is constantly moving forward. But you learn a lot by doing races and doing a lot of races. He's getting better and better." I have to say he's getting better and better. And if you feel more comfortable in a group, you save a lot of energy.

Since his victory in the Algarve Volta, Evenepoel's two years have been full of lessons. The toughest was fighting to regain full fitness after breaking his pelvis in a horrific crash at Il Lombardia in 2020. His return from injury was the Giro d'Italia, but unsurprisingly, his condition was not yet up to par with his ambitions.

Even Paul's disappointment was evident there as well, but by the end of the season he had won eight races, even if his achievements were overshadowed by the polemics that accompanied his coexistence with Wout Van Aert at the Olympics and World Championships. Before the start of this season, Evenpoel declared that he would be a calmer, more mature rider.

"If you have a year like last year where you have to fight to get back to the level again, you know the other side of cycling. "When you have to come back from an injury, you realize that not everything in cycling is easy. I think that was the biggest lesson he learned last year. He knows he can always get back to his best level."

Evenpoel's maturity was first tested at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, where he won the opening stage but then lost the leader's jersey in the first stage race of his career, finishing second overall behind Alexandre Brasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) He finished second overall behind Alexandre Brasov (Bora-Hansgrohe). The defeat was quickly digested.

"Lemko said at the first meeting this year, 'It's never a problem to lose to a strong rider. ' So losing to stronger riders is never a problem. As long as you do everything you can and don't make any tactical mistakes. He has improved a lot in that respect as well."

Perhaps it helped that the Volta Ao Algarve was just around the corner. On Thursday, Evenpoel will return to Alto da Foia. This is where two years ago he took a stage win and the overall lead with an acceleration rarely seen this early in the season. His rivals will be hoping for another show of force this time around.

"I think the time trial is very decisive, but tomorrow is also a very hard stage. 'The second last climb is harder than the last one. We'll try to stay out of trouble on the sprint stages and the long time trial will do the most damage to GC."