The 44th edition of the Volta ao Algarve bicycle race will be covered live and broadcast to 120 countries.
According to the Portuguese Cycling Federation, millions of homes will be able to watch 60 to 90 minutes a day of the racing with Eurosport 2 and TVI24 covering the event in Portugal from the 14th to the 18th of February.
The international transmission and distribution is being handled by Eurosport, which is placing coverage in 51 countries in Europe, 50 in sub-Saharan African nations, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and 16 Asian countries.
Volta ao Algarve will be broadcast live for the second year and in 2017, the race was broadcast in 54 countries.
The 2018 race has 175 competitors in 25 teams, 13 of them from the select WorldTour circuit.
Among the registered riders are two top-10 world riders, Poland's Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) and the Belgian, Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) along with European champion, Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal), and national champions from 15 countries.
The media will be turning up to see the five stages of the race with 100 journalists from eight European, American and Asian countries already accredited.
Volta ao Algarve is the main event in the ‘Cyclin'Portugal’ programme which aims to promote the country as an ideal place to compete, train, or simply wimble about.
Comments
As Cycling Weekly tells us - "The Tour Down Under in Australia (January 16-21) is the traditional WorldTour season opener followed by the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (Australia) on January 28, and the Abu Dhabi Tour (February 21-25), Omloop Het Niewusblad in Belgium (February 24) and Strade Bianche in Italy (March 3)".
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One of the more fascinating spinoffs when armchair viewing each summers Tour of Portugal is the energetic editing of the visuals to avoid the viewer seeing the fires raging around the cyclists and spectators. None of the wide panoramic aerial shots of landscapes and historical features with explanations as in the Tour de France.