"The great figures of world cycling today have won here at the Volta ao Algarve and it was very important for us - and very interesting - that we would again reveal a new champion of the future. Who knows, it may happen", said Delmino Pereira, on the sidelines of the presentation of the race, held in Faro's riverside park.

The leader recalled that Tadej Pogacar, Primoz Roglic, Michal Kwiatkowski and Geraint Thomas have recently won in the Algarve and then excelled in the Tour de France, also mentioning the case of Remco Evenepoel, winner of the 'Algarvia' in 2020 and "another hope of world cycling".

The president of the FPC said that the race has "a curriculum that adds value and prestige to the Volta ao Algarve" and expects "a great cycling race and a great sporting spectacle", given the presence of "a brutal peloton", with 175 riders from 25 teams.

Portuguese Rui Costa will have the number one dorsal of the Volta ao Algarve cycling tour, leading UAE Emirates, with Deceuninck-QuickStep presenting, in theory, the strongest team.

According to the provisional entry list, the Belgian team brings three 'top-50' cyclists to the Algarve, most notably Irish 'sprinter' Sam Bennett (17th), who already has five wins this season and won the 2019 Tour de France points classification, and Denmark's Kasper Asgreen (23rd), recent winner of the Tour of Flanders, one of cycling's 'monuments'.

"We will have teams and cyclists from all the main source markets for tourism to the Algarve," said Delmino Pereira.

As the 'Algarvia' now comes in May, at a different time than usual due to the pandemic, the chances of the Portuguese teams surprising in the race "are greater than [they usually are] in February", estimated the leader.

"Our teams, in the month of February, have few training sessions and kilometres and at this time they have more, so there is more balance. The probability of having Portuguese riders in the Algarve Tour is bigger, which ends up being more interesting for all of us. At the start, it's going to be a more balanced fight and I think that there's going to be a lack of definition up to the top of Malhão, up to the last metre", said the president of the federation.

Affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the biggest difficulties of the organisation were related with the difficulty in finding more sponsors and with the planning, but Delmino stressed that the "determination and resilience" allowed to choose an "optimal" date that guarantees "tranquillity".

"We had a light that illuminated us in choosing the new race date. The Volta ao Algarve will coincide with the end of the state of emergency and with the recovery," he stressed, recalling that the public will be able to watch the race on the roads and streets, with greater conditioning in the start and finish areas.

The race will be broadcasted by Eurosport to about six dozen countries and, in Portugal, the broadcast is ensured by CMTV.

Usually held in February and initially scheduled from 17 to 21 of that month, the Volta ao Algarve had to be postponed to May due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and will be held from 5 to 9 May.