João Almeida was one of the big favourites to win the Vuelta a España and after the last few days, seemingly the only leader for UAE Team Emirates. But disaster may have struck the team as Eurosport Portugal has reported that he tested positive for Covid-19; and he lost many minutes that take him out of the fight for the win.
This is not yet confirmed, but during the broadcast of today's stage it was said that he had fallen ill. Almeida had previously complained about not feeling good in this race, but at Pico Villuercas he pulled off a strong climb that put him up to second in the overall classification.
Today then, a bizarre sight. Almeida going into the final climb in the back of the peloton, isolated, whilst UAE had several riders towards the front of the peloton. It was the warning sign of what was to come, which was a 4:53-minute loss to Primoz Roglic on the final climb that was only 4 kilometers in length. The Portuguese rider cracked completely and crossed the finish line only in 60th spot.
This caused him to drop down to 26th in the overall classification and even in the best case scenario, the fight for the overall victory is no longer viable. UAE had a horrible day with Pavel Sivakov also losing over two minutes; whilst Adam Yates and Isaac Del Toro looked to perform but were also outside the Top10 on the day. Currently, the four riders sit 17th, 20th, 26th and 27th in the race, eight days after starting off as the team with the biggest chances of winning.
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