Remco Evenepoel defends race lead in uphill finale in the Algarve

Sergio Higuita beat Dani Martínez on the line to win the final uphill mountain stage as Remco Evenepoel sealed overall victory 

Remco Evenepoel comfortabely finishing in the lead group on the summit finish of the Alto do Malhão to celebrate overall victory.

The Belgian defended his lead until the last km where Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe) attacked and beat Colombian countryman Dani Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers) to take the stage win.

American Brandon McNulty, who also finished in the lead group, finished second overall. Ineos' Ethan Hayter only 10th-place finish, 43 seconds behind Higuita and came fourth overall

It was a vert stage with several attacks, a breakaway of 20 riders broke free, including Quick-Step's Yves Lampaert and Lukas Pöstlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Ineos' Tom Pidcock.

The break's went up to 2m 20s before Fabio Jakobsen incresed pace in the peloton to reel the breakaway back, who where eventually caught before the finale.

The main peloton thinned as they hot the final climb with Lampaert setting the pace with Evenepoel behind, keeping any potential threats to his GC lead in check.

Yves Lampaert pulled over and Evenepoel asserted his race lead, with Martínez, McNulty, Gaudu and Higuita following.

Brandon McNulty attacked in the final 2 km whereby Dani Martinez came through, then Sergio Higuita, the latter edging out his countryman to take the stage as Evenepoel rolled across the line in 5th celebrating his race win.

VIDEO: 2022 Volta ao Algarve Stage 5 Highlights

2022 Volta ao Algarve Final GC

1 Remco Evenepoel (Bel) QuickStep-AlphaVinyl 19:35:03
2 Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Team Emirates 00:01:17
3 Daniel Martinez (Col) Ineos Grenadiers 00:01:21
4 Ethan Hayter (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers 00:01:39
5 David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 00:02:00
6 Tobias Foss (Nor) Jumbo-Visma 00:02:04
7 Stefan Küng (Swi) Groupama-FDJ 00:02:16
8 Thibault Guernalec (Fra) Arkéa-Samsic 00:02:41
9 Sven Erik Bystrøm (Nor) UAE Team Emirates 00:03:31
10 Dylan Van Baarle (Ned) Ineos Grenadiers) 00:03:38

2022 Volta ao Algarve Stage 5 Top 10

1 Sergio Higuita (Col) Bora-Hansgrohe 04:14:53
2 Daniel Martinez (Col) Ineos Grenadiers
3 Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Team Emirates
4 David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
5 Remco Evenepoel (Bel) QuickStep-AlphaVinyl
6 Tobias Foss (Nor) Jumbo-Visma 00:00:22
7 Jay Vine (Aus) Alpecin-Fenix 00:00:23
8 Federico Figueiredo (Por) Glassdrive Q8 Anicolor 00:00:40
9 Sven Erik Bystrøm (Nor) UAE Team Emirates 00:00:42
10 Ethan Hayter (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers 00:00:43