Ben Healy (EF Education EasyPost) may have been distanced a little by the leading riders on the uphill finished at Volta ao Algarve yesterday, but the Irishman is racing in Portugal with bigger goals in mind.
He said he has chosen to race this week against some of the biggest names in the sport in a bid to get a measure of his form in their company ahead of going head-to-head with them during his first big target races of the season.
And that means the Ardennes Classics, where Healy really underlined his world class status last year. He was an excellent 4th in Liège-Bastogne-Liège and that ride was preceded by 2nd in both Brabantse Pijl and Amstel Gold Race.
While he had already won two races by that point of the season - a stage at Coppi e Bartali (2.1) and the one-day GP Industria & Artigianato (1.Pro) - it is safe to say the cycling world really took note of him in the Netherlands and Belgium in the second half of April, and Healy now says he wants more of that this year.
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Indeed, while the Irish champion is expected to return to the Giro d'Italia this year, after a top tier ride last season, including 1st and 2nd on stages and a stint in the climbers' jersey, it is all about Belgium in April for now.
"The Ardennes is a pretty big goal for me this year so I'll been doing Strade (Bianche), Tirreno (Adriatico) and altitude leading into the Ardennes. And hopefully I'll be in my best shape," he told the media at the start of yesterday's stage 2 at Volat ao Algarve.
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Asked how he was as the season was getting underway, Healy said: "Yeah, I think I'm OK. I had a solid winter and a nice open race (two weeks ago) at Etoile de Bessèges."
"There's a pretty stacked field here, so it will be nice to see how I test up against these guys at the start of the season and hopefully today's the first day to do that."
He added if an opportunity arose for him in Algarve he would "give it a go". And while that did not quite pan out yesterday, as he lost some ground in the final 1.5km, he remained in the front group on the finish climb long after some highly fancied riders were spat out the back of the group.
He eventually finished 17th, some 27 seconds down on winner and runner-up Dani Martínez (Bora-hansgrohe) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Evenepoel). James Knox rode on the front of the final climb for Evenepoel for about 5km, reducing the front group to around 20-25 riders.
And when team mate Mikel Landa took it up with 2km to go, he forced a split in the group, with Healy, Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and a number of others slipping off the back a little.
Most of the damage was then done by Martínez and Evenepoel sprinting for the line from 300m out, chased at six seconds by 3rd place finished Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike).
