
João Almeida was not very satisfied yesterday at the end of the stage. He knows that in a grand tour, days like these count a lot, especially because the uphill finish at Valdezcaray was suited to his characteristics, without particularly steep gradients. But in an instant, a second, if Vingegaard gets away and you don't catch him immediately, you'll see him at the finish line. As it happened.
As the sole leader of Uae Emirates XRG, Almeida had an 8" deficit to Vingegaard at the start of the stage and now it has become 38": the Portuguese lost 24" on the road in 11 km of climbing and 6" from bonus seconds (10" to Vingegaard, 4" to him). The third-place finish, behind the Danish winner and Pidcock, is the least of his concerns.
"None of my teammates were near me in the finale," Almeida begins, "we were caught by surprise by Vingegaard's attack, we didn't expect it. I was well-positioned, but he and Jorgenson attacked very strongly. I couldn't reduce the gap. That's how it is... I saw that my teammates were at their limit and couldn't do much. I particularly missed them yesterday, no one was close to me in that moment. The climb wasn't very steep, so I think I could have followed Jonas differently, you could save yourself by drafting. But we'll never know."
Tomorrow, after the first rest day, another uphill finish, shorter than yesterday's at Valdezcaray but with similar gradients: Puerto de Belagua, 9.4 km at 6.2% average: there's immediately an opportunity to respond.