Adam Yates with nothing but praise for João Almeida: "I asked if I could win and he immediately said yes"

UAE Team Emirates experienced an unusually bad Criterium du Dauphiné, with Juan Ayuso crashing out of the race and the team missing out on a result. At the Tour de Suisse however it's the absolute opposite story, as Adam Yates and João Almeida have now won three consecutive stages combined and go into the final time-trial as each other's sole competitors.

Today was another display of power, with the duo surging clear of the rest of the peloton in the climb to Villars-sur-Ollon. After a lot of work throughout the day, combined with INEOS Grenadiers, the breakaway was reeled in and the GC riders once again battled for victory. The difficult climb saw big differences and with 1.5 kilometers Yates and Almeida dropped the last survivor Matthew Ricitello. Both with a win in the bag and similar abilities, Yates explains how they decided to choose on the winner:

“He is a very nice person. When we rode away together, he asked me what we were going to do. I asked if I could win and he immediately said yes. It shows what a great person he is, what a good teammate. He was also very good himself, so he could have easily won. Credit to him for that.”

14 seconds over their closest match, but Yates enters stage 8 - the mountain time-trial up the same climb - with 1:51 over Egan Bernal. The difference between first and second, Yates and Almeida, is of 31 seconds. A gap that can certainty be closed. Yates does not spare any complements on his teammate.

“For me personally, I think he will definitely beat me by a minute in the time trial," he says. "So you will definitely see him in this chair tomorrow. He has shown how strong he is in the past few days. If he is alone in the time trial, he will fly. I will see what I can do, but we will see that tomorrow.”