"It might be the strongest peloton ever" but João Almeida is ready to leave a mark on his Tour de France debut

João Almeida will be making his Tour de France debut in an edition that he considers to be the "strongest ever", saying that he would like the route to be tougher and more mountainous.

"I think it might be the strongest Tour de France peloton ever, we'll have basically all the strongest riders: Remco Evenepoel, Primoz Roglic, Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Aleksandr Vlasov... That's a lot. A lot," the UAE Team Emirates rider previews in conversation with Ciclismoatual.

Looking ahead to what will be the 111th edition of the Tour, which takes to the road next Saturday in Florence and finishes on July 21, far from Paris, in Nice, Almeida addressed the crashes suffered in the Itzulia Basque Country by the main opponents of Tadej Pogacar, leader of UAE Team Emirates in the fight for the Yellow Jersey. "Roglic, basically, was the luckiest, he only came out with bruises. So I think he'll be one of the strongest guys we'll have to look out for. At the end of the day, it's also cycling, sometimes these things happen. What matters is overcoming them," he argues.

As for the Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader, Jonas Vingegaard, he said he wasn't sure how fit the Dane would be at the Grand Boucle: "I think he'll be in good shape. Obviously, he won't be the Vingegaard of last year, because the crash is there, the time lost has been lost. We'll find out over the days."

"Primoz Roglic will be one of the strongest, he'll have his say. We also have a strong Vlasov, I think we'll have a strong Remco too. There could also be a lot of surprises," Almeida continues, considering that his former colleague at Soudal Quick-Step, who is also a Tour de France rookie, will grow in strength during the French race.

João continues his analysis with Lusa. "Obviously it's the pace that makes the difference, that last week is quite tough. The start is a bit tough, but then the second week... I think there are a lot of flat stages without too much toughness. Again, with the high pace and the fight for position, I think it's going to be a very tough race. Clearly the more mountains there are, the more it favours me," he said.

João Almeida will be at the Tour, which makes his dream of being in Paris for the Olympic Games almost impossible, but..."We haven't yet heard who the two cyclists who will be representing Portugal are, but I'd obviously be proud to be there, to be one of them. I think I've also shown this season that I'm a racer who adapts well to those races and to the time trial. Whatever the coach decides, I think it will be a good decision, whether I'm there or not. I'd love to be there and I always have that in the back of my mind," confessing that if he's at the Olympics he won't be at the 2024 Tour of Spain, which starts in Lisbon "because you can't do everything," he concludes.