8th place for Haussler in first stage of Algarve
Benoît Vaugrenard (Française des Jeux) surprised the peloton with an attack in the final today to win the first stage in the Volta ao Algarve. The 157.5km stage from Faro (Algarve Stadium) to Albufeira saw Joan Horrach (Team Katusha) place second, 3 seconds behind Vaugrenard. André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) finished third. Heinrich Haussler was the best TestTeam rider finishing in eighth place.

"There was a strong wind for the first 30 kilometres of today's opening stage," said Marcello Albasini, Sports Director. "In the first part of the race there was a four rider break away and they stayed ahead of the bunch until approximately 25 kilometres to the finish, with a maximum gap of more than nine minutes. The climbs were not so easy; the first one was especially steep. It also began to rain during the race making the downhill's particularly cold. After that Columbia started to reduce the break away group's time cap and were able to chase them back with 25 kilometres to go. There was a 5% climb about 4 kilometres from the finish that created a long line of riders, some of whom were dropped. The final was different as it was not a really bunch sprint, as we expected - so we were a bit surprised. We will see what happens tomorrow, it will be a harder stage and we expect a bunch sprint in the final. We decided to go with Heinrich in the sprint today as this is the first race for Thor after his sickness and he probably needs a few more days to do something."

Stage 1 : Faro - Albufeira (157.5 km)
1. Benoît Vaugrenard (Fra) Française des Jeux
2. Joan Horrach (Spa) Team Katusha
3. André Greipel (Ger) HTC-Columbia
4. Matthieu Ladagnous (Fra) Française des Jeux
5. Nick Nuyens (Bel) Rabobank
8. Heinrich Haussler (Ger) Cervélo TestTeam