"Everything went perfectly" - Joao Almeida delighted by UAE Team Emirates' dominant display on Pla d'Adet at Tour de France as Tadej Pogacar firms up GC lead

Although Tadej Pogacar was talking pre-stage about riding a defensive race on the slopes of Pla d'Adet on stage 14 of the 2024 Tour de France, the Maillot Jaune couldn't help himself. Distancing all his main rivals on the final climb of the day with a blistering late attack, Pogacar further strengthened his hold of the race lead over Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel.

After much criticism over the last few days, UAE Team Emirates tactics also seemed to have worked well on the final climb as the likes of Pavel Sivakov and Joao Almeida set a brutal pace, before Adam Yates attacked, drawing Pogacar out a few kilometres later. Post-stage, Almeida shared a few words with Eurosport to reflect on a very successful day for UAE Team Emirates.

"It was a hard stage. We had to do a hard pace to try and gain time on Vingegaard," the Portuguese explains. "Everything went perfectly, so yeah, I think I have to say congrats to the whole team. We accomplished our goal."

"Yates' move was always one of the options. It depends on the race situation and how things are going but yeah, it was really good," concludes Almeida, who maintains a high placing on GC himself, now sitting 4th at 6:01.

In the end, Pogacar gained 39 seconds on Vingegaard before bonus seconds and such were added, with Remco Evenepoel crossing the line in third, 1:10 down on the road. As far as the general classification goes, Pogacar's advantage over his great rival is now nearly two minutes.