António Morgado on João Almeida or Tadej Pogacar's lead in the Tour de France: "In the Tour it's the road that decides"

António Morgado, 19, runner-up junior World champion 2022, runner-up world U23 champion 2023. This is the presentation card for UAE-Team Emirates' latest Portuguese signing for the 2024 season, and he discusses plans of himself and his teammates.

Morgado has taken the step that all youngsters dream of, making it to the World Tour and, what's more, to the team that leads the world rankings in 2023. He revealed his expectations to O Jogo, promising to fight to help the team achieve its collective goals as he develops. "I'm excited, I want to learn from the athletes who are there. I'm proud to be in this team. It's going to be a very important season in my career."

The Portuguese rider has signed a contract until 2027 and chose stability: "It depends on the athlete you want to be. I'm changing and I'm going to learn a lot. It gives me a lot of security," he adds. "This team is very advanced in terms of technology. It's a very familiar group, with lots of Italians, Spaniards and Portuguese. It's a more Latin team, so it was the right choice." He also stressed his ambition: "I'm in charge of the future. It was no relief to sign for UAE, the objective remains exactly the same, I want to keep evolving until I get to where I want to be."

Asked about the fact that the team has so many big names and so many leaders, Morgado shows no fear: "We have a squad to try to win everywhere and make the top 10, sometimes with three riders. It's a good philosophy and everyone should do well that way. It's good that someone can give you results and, ultimately, fit you in during the first few years and the best thing is to be able to keep up with them right from the start. I want to improve and be like them. I'm going to be totally focused and I know that if I can catch up with the team I'll be on the right track".

The 19-year old has said in the past that he's a cycling scholar, but now he says he's more relaxed: "I'm doing what I'm told, I'm not always focused on doing more and more. I'm more in control." The conversation would obviously have to go to João Almeida, his neighbor and someone he admires immensely "The first person I want to learn from is João. One of his strengths is his psyche, he's very relaxed, he gets over the bad moments quickly. I think his physiognomy is perfect for the races he does. I've got big legs, I'm stocky, I've got big glutes and there's a lot of weight to lose. And my back too," he points out.

João Almeida will be going to the Tour de France and Morgado believes in his teammate without hesitation, "He did a great Giro d'Italia, it was three weeks of great competition and he deserved the final podium, he even won a stage. It was incredible what he did for Portuguese cycling. Now he's going to the Tour de France where Pogacar will also be there, but in the Tour it's the road that decides", hinting that Almeida won't be going just to be a working man at the service of the Slovenian, who won the Grande Boucle twice.

Morgado concludes by refusing to be compared to Rui Costa (EF Education - EasyPost) or to be a cyclist cut out for the Classics, "I'm not trying to copy anyone, I don't consider myself to be such an explosive athlete. In fact, I'd even lose the explosiveness to do the long climbs better. My dream is to develop so that I can do three-week races and go to the Tour one day. It's my favorite race. I'm discovering myself and people think I'm cut out for the Classics because last year I couldn't fight for the Generals... I did tests and we understood what happened. It was a change of coach and methods and now I'm working to come back well," he concludes.

Article written by Carlos SIlva.