"I will be at the Tour to support Tadej, and I will do so unconditionally" - João Almeida ready to sacrifice himself in Pogacar's service
Cycling
After playing a starring role in support of Tadej Pogacar at the 2024 Tour de France, securing a 4th placed finish overall in his own right, João Almeida is again set to be the key super-domestique for the UAE Team Emirates leader in 2025.
“I would say that my best performance was at the Tour de Suisse. Then I was a bit sick and didn’t feel 100% at the Tour de France, but I was still quite well," the 26-year-old Portuguese reflects of the season just been in comments to radsport-news.com. "Even if I will be at the Tour (in 2025 ed.) to support Tadej, and I will do so unconditionally, it can still be positive for me.”
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The Grand Tour Almeida has had the most success so far in his career is probably the Giro d'Italia. The Portuguese wore the Maglia Rosa for 15 days in 2020, plus in 2023 he finished on the podium and took his first Grand Tour stage victory in Italy. In 2025 though, UAE Team Emirates have confirmed both Adam Yates and Juan Ayuso for the Italian Grand Tour, with Almeida focusing on his role in support of Pogacar at the Tour de France.
“Of course I thought about the Giro, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I would prefer to ride the Tour again," he explains thoughtfully. "I have already done the Giro and the Vuelta many times, so I would prefer to do the Tour a second time, in my best form, and then I will see what I can achieve.”
This season, Almeida doubled up the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana so potentially, a similar programme could still arise in 2025, depending on his form and levels at the time of the Spanish Grand Tour.
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- And your comment is stupid! It's a free market to go where they want. They share a home country so why not ride together.frieders315-12-2024
- btw, i read your posts regularly and appreciate that you’ve always got something interesting to say and you stimulate lots of discussion here. happy holidays, brother.OCexile15-12-2024
- that’s the long and short of it, right? i remember reading a story last year on Velonews about eli, right after mathieu came back then. iserbyt said “every year i’ve truly believed that THIS would be the year my efforts finally allow me to challenge van der poel, but the time comes when you have to admit that fairy tales are just fairy tales…” SOUL CRUSHING, right? all these guys who just happened to be in their prime right when the strongest, most dominant cx racer of all time is in his. way it goes. that’s the nature of individual sports. every once in a while fortune serves up ONE person who is not only vastly more gifted, but also singularly driven to win. watching this champions is thrilling most of the time, but i can also feel for the men and women who have dedicated their lives to their sport only to do battle with someone they really can’t hope to defeat.OCexile15-12-2024
- Right. Scanning ahead, situational awareness, in order to be proactive.JBBriggs15-12-2024
- And if all these other guys would have full time cycling jobs all year round, they’d be less critical about who rides when. Not their fault cycling is split into so many different disciplines to allow some less good riders a chance to win once in a while on their preferred terrain.Mistermaumau15-12-2024
- Like plenty of others, and he probably wishes he was MVDP but would settle for WVA.Mistermaumau15-12-2024
- ohhh, i WISH!OCexile15-12-2024
- I am pretty sure both have won 10 races.Sweep15-12-2024
- Are you MV???Mistermaumau15-12-2024
- Don’t really understand the point of making a point of it, especially as he stands to get the same crowd without the extra cost. It could be any number of reasons, the first of which might be that after 12 years of it, maybe he wants to try something new?Mistermaumau15-12-2024