DISCUSSION Tour de Suisse Stage 8 | Is João Almeida the best domestique in the world?

The last stage of the Tour de Suisse featured a brutal uphill time-trial. It was 10 kilometres long, 9 of which averaged 9%. This stage was considered by many as the queen stage, as significant differences were expected among the main GC contenders, and the stage didn’t disappoint.

Harry Sweeny was the first surprise of the day. He displayed a terrific form, setting the best time at the beginning of the stage. No one was able to beat his time, with riders like Pello Bilbao or Antonio Morgado finishing 33 and 47 seconds behind him, respectively.

Later on, the GC guys came into action. Ben O’Connor, Ilan van Wilder, and Lennard Kämna tried to beat Sweeny’s time, but they all fell short. Felix Gall destroyed the course at the end of the stage, setting a new fastest time by 1:27, but his joy was short-lived, as Almeida took over the throne and took home the time-trial win, as well as the GC win.

Vauquelin finished the stage in fourth position. He defended himself really well in the climb, but there was nothing he could do to prevent Almeida from winning his third GC of the year.

Once the stage finished, we asked some of our writers to share their thoughts and main takeaways about what happened today.

João Almeida did what was expected of him, but he was no less impressive for it. In the end, his 3 minutes lost in the first stage has made us have an exciting and tight Tour de Suisse 2025 until the end.

Congratulations to Oscar Onley who gets on the podium and gets the best result of his career so far in a stage race, congratulations to Kévin Vauquelin who held on as long as he could but Almeida was too much and watch out for Felix Gall who has been going from strength to strength and could be a podium contender in the next Tour de France.

As for our Movistar Team, Pablo Castrillo lost a position but finished in the Top 10 of one of the most prestigious races of the cycling calendar, and Will Barta was finally very close to the Top 10 thanks to his spectacular time trial, in which he was eighth.

There it is! The comeback we were all waiting for. João Almeida was the strongest rider during the whole race and deservedly won the Tour de Suisse. Amazing effort from Kevin Vauquelin, put on an incredible fight and made this race interesting until the last minute, so kudos for him. But today the day is for João Almeida. Historic season for the portuguese guy after winning the Basque Country, the Romandie and now the Suisse and displaying he is for sure one of the best riders in the world right now.

Joao Almeida's impressive time trial climb has cemented his status (even more so, if possible) as one of the best climbers on the planet. He won three stages in a race he completely dominated.

For now, there is no doubt that, behind Tadej Pogacar, Almeida is the cyclist of the year. Winning the Itzulia, Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse in quick succession is no mean feat, and he has achieved it with ease.

The news is unbeatable for the Tour de France and Pogacar. With Almeida by his side and at this level, it will be very difficult for the Slovenian to miss out on his fourth Grande Boucle title. There is fear in Visma, for sure, and if not, it is because they do not realise what Joao Almeida is achieving.

A deserved and expected victory for Almeida. The strongest climber in the race, he made good use of his good form to win three stages and become one of the first riders in history to win three of the 'big 7' one-week races in the calendar. His win today was written all over and although Kevin Vauquelin did do in my opinion a great time-trial, this was a W/Kg test and you can't ride above what's physically possible.

The top4 lined up exactly as it was expected with Felix Gall also taking full advantage of his pure climber status to almost jump directly onto the podium and doing a great second place on the day, Oscar Onley defending himself and comfortably overtaking an expectedly fragile (and non-climber) Alaphilippe, and lastly Vauquelin who isn't a world class climber but through consistency, tactics and quality in all types of climbs has managed to finish a stupendous second place.

It was enjoyable to see a race of such high level be battled so intensely, with so many victory contenders, and with so many mountain stages ridden so aggressively. This has set the tone for the Tour de France and now it will be interesting to see how these men will do alongside those who raced the Dauphiné.

While football remains deeply ingrained in Portugal’s national identity, becoming a world-class cyclist like João Almeida is an entirely different challenge. Yet once again, Almeida proved that even a rider from close to the Atlantic Ocean can conquer terrain tailored to alpine specialists. In today’s mountain time trial, Felix Gall—who practically grew up in the Austrian Alps—obliterated the field, demonstrating his full climbing prowess.

Then came João Almeida. Not only did he match Gall, he crushed his time by nearly half a minute, delivering a statement ride. Kevin Vauquelin, the third contender in this thrilling finale, gave everything he had, but Almeida left no room for doubt.

With this commanding performance, Almeida sealed the overall win at the 2025 Tour de Suisse—reaffirming his status as one of the best stage racers in the world. More importantly, he put Portuguese cycling firmly back on the global map.

Parabéns João. You’ve done it. The Portuguese man is taking home his third one-week World Tour GC in just two months. No other rider in the Big Six had ever done this before, not even Pogacar!

I think we need to reconsider what type of rider João Almeida is. To me, he is one of the most reliable riders in the entire peloton. Let’s take a look at his past performances this year. Not only has he won three GCs in a row (Tour de Suisse, Tour de Romandie, and Itzulia), but he also placed 6th in Paris-Nice, 2nd in Volta Algarve, and 2nd in Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana.

I don’t think there is currently any other rider in the world capable of offering such a level of consistency and reliability in top-level races, apart from Pogacar, of course. But yeah, luckily or not, he rides for the same team as the Slovenian superstar, which means… well, he has to play the role of a domestique more than once and twice every year.

The UAE is known for being a team with questionable decisions when it comes to tactics. We saw it in the Giro d’Italia with Juan Ayuso and Isaac del Toro, and we saw it again in the Tour de Suisse with Jan Christen. Many excellent riders, but also many egos running loose around the team. UAE needs the figure of someone like Joao Almeida.

When he is the leader, he performs at his best, but when he is a domestique, he accepts his role and rides for the team’s success. This is just what Pogacar and the UAE need. So I am wondering now, is João Almeida the best domestique in the world? To me, absolutely yes.

I would also like to briefly mention Kévin Vauquelin’s performance in this race. The French rider was known for being an excellent puncheur, with a good tip of speed, and capable of winning stages in many scenarios. What I didn’t know is how good of a climber he can be when he fully commits to it. He finished second, beating excellent climbers like Oscar Onley and Felix Gall, and he showed almost no signs of weakness during the mountain stages in this race.

He was indeed holding a comfortable lead over some of the main GC contenders already after stage 1, but he showed terrific form during the hardest climbs in every stage. Chapeau to the French rider, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him wearing a different jersey rather than Arkéa’s colours next year…

Speaking about French riders, Alaphilippe is, to me, the biggest disappointment of the day. I was expecting him to fight for a podium finish, but it was clear from the beginning of his TT that the climb to Stockhütte was too much for him. I am looking forward to seeing him again in the Tour de France. I am sure he will deliver us some special moments as he has in the past.

Finally, let’s talk about Harry Sweeny. The EF-rider was definitely not a favourite for today’s TT. Today, he looked unbeatable from the beginning of the stage. His biggest result in a time-trial so far was in last year’s Vuelta a España, where he finished in 9th place in the last stage of the race. However, that was a predominantly flat TT, and he had never excelled at any uphill time-trial. Good job by the Australian rider, we will have to count on him for future stages like this one.