Cece Boll (Team Sunweb) took his fourth career win and first in the 2020 Tavira at the Volta Ao Algarve on Friday. He won ahead of rivals such as Fabio Jacobsen (Deceuninck Quickstep), Elia Viviani (Cofidis), and Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates).

The 24-year-old Bol won the 202-km third stage with an uphill finish in a "church town" 25 km west of the Spanish border. Boll added this victory to a string of wins he earned last season, including Nokère Coase, the final stage of the Tour of California, and the first stage of the Tour of Norway.

"It's good to start the season like this," said Boll. I made a team mistake in the first sprint, but things went well today. I was happy to finish the race."

"I'm very happy to have finished.

Boll took the lead of the peloton in the last 10km and followed teammate Casper Pedersen to Tavira. In the final kilometer, Florian Senechal (Deceuninck-Quick Step) took over from Mads Wurz Schmidt (Israel Startup Nation), who broke away after the final corner.

Pedersen took the lead with 400 meters to go, pushed hard, then pulled away with 200 meters to go. Then it was Boll's turn and he took the lead ahead of his rivals. Points leader Jacobsen and Sacha Modolo (Alpecin Phoenix) jumped out to either side of Boll, but neither was able to close the gap enough to overtake the Dutchman.

"I followed Casper at the front and when I saw the 200m sign, I just went full on and crossed the line first. I'm focusing on sprinting this year," he added. He added, "I've been doing a lot of sprints this year.

With the hilltop finish and time trial over the weekend, Bol's sprint chances are over, but he is looking forward to next weekend's Kuhne-Brussel-Kuhne. With sprinters such as Tom Boonen, Mark Cavendish, and Dylan Groenewegen winning this race on a semi-regular basis, Sunweb's Bol is hoping to add his name to the list.

"Next week's Kuhne is a different race, but I want to give my best again.

"The win is a sign of a good winter. In the winter you always hope that what you are doing is good and of course you are really happy when it pays off.