João Almeida: "The crashes are more from the riders’ attitude and not so much from the organizations"

João Almeida is a rider that has performed strongly all-year long in 2025 and wasn't often affected by crashes. But this did happen at the Tour de France, which led to his withdrawal in a key goal. The Portuguese rider believes that the responsibility for the falls mostly rely on the attitude of the riders in the peloton.

“So my take is that, the bikes have been faster than ever. The stress in a bunch it has been also pretty high. My opinion is that it is mainly from the riders’ attitude,” Almeida said in an interview with Sigma Sports. “I think there is a lack of respect in the bunch. People do not really care if they crash, they do not really think much about safety. This is what I feel.”

Over the past few years there's been an increasing trend of falls during races, regardless of their level, and it has affected many riders and led to a widespread discourse on safety and how to improve it. Whilst the creation of a yellow card system, for example, might make a small change in the behaviour during bunch sprints, nothing seems to have slowed down the trend.

The reason mostly lies in the increasing professionalism and focus of riders and teams, who take positioning more seriously during key moments of races, hence leading to an increase in tense moments and close contact at high speed. The smaller teams also do not settle with being left behind, often making for a true war for entering climbs, cobbled sectors or dangerous points in the head of the race.

But in general, there is the feeling that riders are also willing to take more and more risks. “In my opinion, the crashes are more from the riders’ attitude and not so much from the organizations. I think the faster bikes does not really mean much".

Hence Almeida's belief most likely suggests that several of the changes proposed by the UCI or even the fans are unlikely to make a difference. Because at the end of the day, the riders chose to take the risks, and the solution likely lies on how to get them not to be so aggressive in the peloton.

"I am a guy that like cars. I often go to the tracks sometimes. I ride 300 kilometres per hour sometimes. And I do not crash. I have brakes, I can brake whenever I want, you know. So if you go 70 on a road bike, you just try to brake a bit earlier, you know. And then it comes the common sense.”

“I think it is more important nowadays maybe some riders need to do like a course, to do some cornering, some descents, so they know what they are doing," Almeida suggests. "Because if you go faster, you need to have more skills as well".

He had a strong reminder of this at the Tour de France this year, when he was part of a high-speed crash on a descent close to the Mur-de-Bretagne on stage 7. The fight for positioning and high speed in the peloton led to a big fall which had consequences.

“If you have some common sense and you respect everybody, and you know, I do not want to crash anybody, I do not want to crash myself, so maybe I brake a bit early just to be safe. And then I can push after on the climb or something. But that is clearly not the mindset at the moment, but that is what I feel," he concluded.