But later on in the spring he really kicked off his campaign, winning two stages and the overall classification at Itzulia Basque Country, an impressive dominating performance where he was almost unrivalled. He would conclude his spring campaign by also winning the Tour de Romandie.
Almeida, like Tadej Pogacar and the team's Tour de France block, has been training at altitude in Sierra Nevada - only he will race the Tour de Suisse unlike Pogacar, where he should be the main favourite for the overall classification.
He certainly will enter that status after an impressive KOM that has caught the attention of fans. On the Alto del Purche, in the Granada area, Almeida beat the previous KOM of
Juan Ayuso (of 13:22 minutes) by a whole 32 seconds, bringing down the record time to 12:50 now. The Top10 is packed with some of the world's top climbers, who have both set these times in training rides and racing scenarios.
The segment, which is over 6 kilometers long at 9% average gradient, was climbed at an average speed of 20.6Km/h by the Portuguese rider who besides being a very consistent rider and excellent time-trialist, is also consistently evolving as a strong climber.