"A pity it was so close" - João Almeida left with mixed feelings after second place at Itzulia and reveals he crashed during recon
Cycling
João Almeida is one of the big favourites to win Itzulia Basque Country and this Monday he began his race the right way. The UAE Team Emirates - XRG rider has won time on all of his direct rivals, however not everything about the day was positive.
"I'm super happy. Today I think I did really good, there was nothing left at the finish line so it's good. Just a pity it was so close to first place," Almeida said immediately after his effort. "At least for now, so let's see if I can hang on to second place (at the end of the day he did finish in the same position, ed.)"
"Actually I even went a bit faster in the beginning then I wanted to, it's a short TT so you can't save much because it's super short. If you save at the start you never take that time back, but I guess the guys just went super fast in the beginning. But I'm happy with my feelings," he assures.
Whilst riders such as Enric Mas and Santiago Buitrago lost very meaningful time in the 16-kilometer long course, Almeida can certainly be happy with the consequences for the overall classification of today. However, he knows that he has to keep many riders under a close watch, specially BORA's Florian Lipowitz and Aleksandr Vlasov who finished third and fifth.
"It's a small effort, it's a good indicator but nothing special, also the other guys looked quite strong so it's going to be a hard week but I think things are going good".
Almeida this morning actually crashed whilst doing a recon of the course he reveals, but it did not lead to important injuries: "Not really, it was minor, nothing special. Fortunately it was all ok".
He will likely go into the hilly stages of the race as the best placed victory contender - depending on how Max Schachmann hangs on - however he aknowledges that the course isn't perfectly suited to his abilities: "I prefer longer climbs than short and steep, but it's the same for everyone so just full gas to the finish line and see how it goes".
Great TT effort! @JooAlmeida98 sits in provisional second place by a narrow margin at #Itzulia2025.#WeAreUAE pic.twitter.com/zRphRShrks
— @UAE-TeamEmirates (@TeamEmiratesUAE) April 7, 2025
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