"I was waiting for an attack anytime" - João Almeida surprised with Jonas Vingegaard's conservativism in Angliru showdown

Few would've expected it, but Jonas Vingegaard was not the strongest and was beaten at the Alto de l'Angliru. The hardest climb of the Vuelta marked the start of the key part of the race, but the Dane saw his lead to João Almeida shortened after the Portuguese outsprinted him atop the end of stage 13.

"This is a special one, I still don't believe it. Thanks to my teammates, they were key today, we did an amazing stage," Almeida said in a post-race interview. Visma put in the effort to control the breakaway on the 13th day of the race, but as soon as the two climbs leading up to the Angliru began, it was Q36.5 and UAE who took over the front of the peloton, looking to provide the confidence and positioning to their men instead of letting Visma control the race at will.

On the final climb, Jay Vine and Felix Grossschartner did an amazing leadout job for the Portuguese who took over the head of the GC group with 6 kilometers to go. He dropped everyone but Jonas Vingegaard on one of cycling's hardest climbs, and although there was little to no benefit in slipstreaming, Jonas Vingegaard was unable to leave Almeida's wheel.

"I just put my pace from the bottom, and I did the best I could. Jonas was always in the wheel. Last K I was on the limit, I guess we were both on the limit," he says. And by the time that the duo reached the summit of the Angliru, they were still together. The donwhill finale was very fast, narrow and technical, but this wouldn't be a surprise to any of them.

"I was waiting for an attack anytime and I thought he was going to pass me at the finish line but I knew the finish line quite well from two years ago and I took first the last corner and it was hard to pass... It was an amazing day". The red jersey didn't come through, and Almeida could celebrate a stage victory that didn't seem overly likely at the start of the day.

"This is the hardest climb in the world, it's crazy. I still have a lot of time to make up to Jonas, he's looking phenomenal so i think it's going to be a hard task, but we'll never give up". The gap has been reduced to 46 seconds, but UAE's dreams of an overall win have grown.