João Almeida not worried about small time loss in Torino: "The gaps in the overall classification are still quite small so everything is possible"

João Almeida had perhaps his most stressful stage up to date in the ongoing Giro d'Italia yesterday in Torino, however he escaped with relatively minimal losses as he managed to match almost every attack of the competition on what was a chaotic day.

Almeida was one of the GC contenders caught behind the split caused by BORA - hansgrohe with over 80 kilometers to go, however he was the only one who managed to bridge across in the first ascent of the Superga. It was a hard effort, but one that was successful. “I’m satisfied with my performance today. I was chasing for a lot of the stage and it was hard, but I think that it was the same for everyone today," he said in a post-stage interview.

With difficulties in the descents and a pacing strategy that ignored the constant attacks towards the finale, Almeida was put on the backfoot several times, but managed to reel himself back into contention on all but one final attack on the Colle della Maddalena. Nevertheless, despite the complicated day, the Portuguese rider lost only 24 seconds (plus bonifications) to Richard Carapaz and Jai Hindley who now sit ahead of him in the overall classification.

"The gaps in the overall classification are still quite small so everything is possible, we just need to keep fighting. Tomorrow is going to be another hard stage so we look ahead to that," he concluded. By tomorrow, he means the stage to Cogne which is set to make further differences in the overall classification today, perhaps a day that will suit him better with the more constant efforts.