"He seems like an impeccable young man" - João Almeida's mother on her son's close bond with Tadej Pogacar after Tour de France success

There were 33 km to go in the 2024 Tour de France and João Almeida was preparing to make his individual effort between Monaco and Nice. On the second category climb of the day, the Portuguese rider had someone very special pulling for him, his father, and at the finish line his mother and girlfriend were there to give the rider a big hug as soon as he finished his first participation in the world's most important stage race.

At the Observador microphones, Patricia, João Almeida's mother, was proud of her son: "I'm very proud of him, not just because of his fantastic results, but because he's such a dedicated boy and because he perseveres," she says. "I suffer a little, we're always afraid that he'll fall, that things won't go so well, it's hard."

His parents, sister and girlfriend were in Nice, but watching Almeida's parents on television is something we've become accustomed to, as they make a point of accompanying him on the Grand Tours "Yes, whenever we can we like to watch and accompany him to give him that strength we like to transmit. He knows we're always with him, but we like to be there and we make sure of that."

France is a country with many Portuguese nationals and João Almeida has as such, been feeling enormous support in the Tour de France from the Portuguese community scattered around the country on the Tour roads. "It's fantastic. It feels like João is giving them a bit of the soul of our country. It's fantastic to see people shouting for him like that and it's even more fantastic because there are foreigners who come up to us, they recognize us by the flag, it's really wonderful."

What about Pogacar? Do you think he deserved to win? "Yes, yes, they did a lot for him. João came to help and to work. Of course he wanted to do well overall, but the aim was to help the leader. He's in 4th place and I think he can keep it," she says. Is Tadej Pogacar easy to get along with? "As far as I can see, yes, we don't like to bother either, but he seems like an impeccable young man," laughs Patrícia.

Almeida spends a lot of time away from home, sometimes at altitude camps, sometimes racing, which is often difficult for his parents. "As parents we like to have our children close by, but we know that they also have to fly. In my case he's always a long way away, but nowadays with the new technologies we're able to keep him close," she continues. "He's always been very focused, when he was a kid he was very dedicated and now he's a professional and he's still just as dedicated, because he really doesn't like to fail when he sets out to achieve his goals".

Almeida won't be at the Olympic Games in Paris however, although he will be at the Vuelta a Espana later this summer. Patricia has already marked the dates of the Spanish race in her diary. "I'm going to Lisbon and then I'm going to accompany him for the last week," she confesses, because as she said, "I have my work and I can't spend the whole summer like this" and so she can't accompany her son;

The conversation ends with a question in jest, but with a hint of provocation... To be leader of the Tour de France. "He's never said it, but we think so, I think it's a goal, now whether it will happen, only the future will tell. But I think he'll work for it, to have that opportunity," she concluded.