Joao Almeida confesses after stage 7: "I wanted to win my second stage, but my head told me to give him the win, he's the Yellow Jersey"

Another categorical display today in the Tour de Suisse from João Almeida. The Portuguese rider from UAE Team Emirates put in another consistent stage, showing that he's in good shape and that together with his teammate Adam Yates, they're the strongest men in the Swiss race.

He attacked on the last climb to Villars-sur-Ollon but he wasn't alone. It took until 1.5 kilometres from the finish line that the UAE duo Almeida and Yates shook off the last challenger, Matthew Ricitello, who would take third place in the stage, 14 seconds behind the winner.

After the end of the stage, he spoke to the guys from Road Code and summarised his day. "I was feeling good," Almeida begins. "We were lucky that it didn't rain. The stage went well for us as we came 1st and 2nd, which is insane."

He continues: "Ineos set a hard pace to see if anyone was having a bad day, then at the end Skjelmose attacked and I thought the moment was right to attack too. I told Adam on the radio to join me because I didn't want to attack my teammate, he joined me and we both rode away."

As they entered the last few hundred metres, we witnessed an exchange of words between the two UAE men, which João explains: "I wanted to win my second stage, but my head told me to give him the win, he's the Yellow Jersey."

It was another 1-2 in the Tour de Suisse for UAE: "The team just wanted us to win the race, it didn't matter who. It was a good day for us." concluded João Almeida, who is now 31 seconds behind the Brit. The Portuguese will be one of the main candidates for victory in tomorrow's time trial and also to become Rui Costa's successor for the overall classification. His experienced compatriot won the race three times in a row between 2012 and 2014.

"What do we do now?" 😅

Hear from João Almeida after his second place finish alongside team-mate and winner, Adam Yates, on Stage 7 of Tour de Suisse 👇
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— Road Code (@RoadCode) June 15, 2024

Article written by Carlos Silva.