Joao Almeida finishes the Tour de France with a sense of accomplishment: "It's very special to be part of this victory, I'm very happy that we did it"
Cycling
The 111th edition of the Tour de France has come to an end and with it João Almeida's debut in the world's biggest cycling race. After several top five finishes at Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana, the Portuguese rider finally added a Grand Boucle top 5 to his collection.
The final 33km time trial from Monaco to Nice was somewhat favourable to the Portuguese rider in his fight for 4th place with Mikel Landa and in the end the UAE Team Emirates rider didn't leave any doubts about who's better in the battle of domestiques, as he got the better of the Soudal - Quick-Step rider, putting him 21 seconds further back in the overall after the day.
In the Eurosport flash interview after the stage, when asked to say a few words about Tadej Pogacar's six wins in the race, Almeida said: "He told me he was going to give everything, so I imagine he went all out. This is crazy. Congratulations to him and congratulations to the team we did a perfect job and we can be proud of what we did."
It was Almeida's debut at the Tour and he immediately took on an important role within the team, as he, along with Adam Yates, was one of the last men to stand alongside Pogacar in the mountains, on his way to the Giro-Tour double, which hadn't been accomplished since 1998, when Marco Pantani achieved this feat. "It's very special to be part of this victory, I'm very happy that he did it. Today was a superb day."
As the final podium ceremony was about to begin, the reporter joked with Almeida that he was missing the special yellow version of the UAE Team Emirates jersey: "Yes, that's true, but I'm already going to change my jersey," replied Almeida, who was beaming with a huge smile of happiness at having contributed to the achievement of the UAE team's great goal after 21 days of competition: The Throne of the Tour
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Article written by Carlos Silva.
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