Nicolás Tivani, the Argentine mountain star in the Vuelta de Algarve who made history in cycling and celebrated with a two-time champion in the Tour de France

The 51st edition of the classic Vuelta al Algarve saw an Argentinean on the top step of the podium. Nicolás Tivani , who rides for the Aviludo Louletano Loulé team, won the Mountain Race classification in the Portuguese cycling event. And he celebrated his achievement alongside a titan of world cycling, the Dane Jonas Vingegaard , two-time Tour de France champion, who finished first in the general classification and was crowned champion.

"Simply happy. Being able to share the podium with this figure is not something you experience every day. Many thanks to life for giving me these joys. How humble, Jonas," wrote the Sanjuanino on Instagram along with a photo in which he can be seen with the winner of the Tour in 2022 and 2023, with whom he exchanged caps after the close of the race.

Tivani, 29, took the blue jersey, which identifies the best rider in the mountain stages, by accumulating 28 points in the five stages, 14 more than Portugal's Joao Almeida and 15 more than Switzerland's Johan Jacobs .

The Pocito native, who had won the Vuelta a San Juan a few weeks ago, added his first points by crowning the only mountain pass of the first stage, which was run last Wednesday and which had a chaotic ending . Because 800 metres from the finish, most of the peloton took the wrong direction - at the last roundabout, they went to the right when they should have gone to the left - and passed behind the spectators, leaving only thirty cyclists in the fight for victory.

The organisers then decided to annul the results of the day's general classification, arguing that poor signage had disrupted the normal development of the competition. However, the points for the mountain classification were maintained.

Tivani continued to increase his tally in the following stages and on the fourth and penultimate day - 175.2 kilometres between Albufeira and Faro - he secured first place with a strategy that allowed him to win the "ports". He only had to complete the time trial on the final stage to confirm his victory. And so he did, crossing the finish line in 92nd place.

"I'm very happy to have achieved the mountain goals at such a high level. It was the goal we had with the team. It would have been nice to be able to crown it with a stage, but I'm still very happy with everything we've achieved," he told Diario de Cuyo from Portugal.

"It's always good to start the year with a win. I really enjoyed this race, which I attended for the first time," he added.

Vingegaard had entered the final day of competition 20 seconds behind the overall leader, Swiss Jan Christen . But he won the 19.6-kilometre individual time trial between Salir and Alto do Malhao with ease, overtaking Christen and taking the title.

Tivani, gold medalist in Madison and silver medalist in individual pursuit at the 2022 South American Games in Asunción , had been responsible for securing Argentina's first ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in April 2023, by finishing second in the Pan American Road Championships in Panama. But that country's quota for the road event was finally used by Eduardo Sepúlveda .

Multiple Argentine and Pan-American medalist, the Sanjuanino has been riding since last year for Aviludo Louletano Loulé, a team with a continental license, the third category of professional cycling.

In his first season with that team, he won a stage - the second - of the 2024 Vuelta a Portugal . And at the weekend he had the pleasure of getting on the podium in the Algarve event, the southernmost region of that country, and celebrating alongside one of the best in the world.