"It's not something serious" - João Almeida hurt after Vuelta crash but manages to match the best at Xorret de Catí

After losing Jay Vine, UAE Team Emirates risked losing a second leader in João Almeida yesterday due to an early crash. However the Portuguese rider recovered and had his best legs towards the end and finished alongside the GC favourites.

“It wasn't my best day. I felt very good physically, I even had one of my best days on the bike. Something was wrong with the road, I lost my balance and fell hard," he described in a post-race interview. Almeida went down in the early kilometers of the eighth day of racing. “I hit my leg muscle with the frame or my handlebars," he describes.

"It was then swollen considerably and that was painful. I got back on the bike and then got everything out of it." It was a worry for UAE seeing that the day still featured plenty climbing including the very steep Xorret de Catí. However the situation improved in the following hours: "Luckily the pain disappeared by the time we turned up the final climb."

Although he was at times not following the group, in his traditional pacing style he returned to the front of the race in the descent of the final ascent. He finished in the group, two seconds back on stage winner Primoz Roglic. "I managed to stay with the favorites and saved my day. It's not something serious. I hope to get through it in the next four to five days, so that I can perform at my normal level again," Almeida concluded. Starting stage 9, another important GC day, the 25-year old is 11th in the GC, 3:09 minutes down on Sepp Kuss.