João Almeida is making his Tour de France debut this year and it is one looked at with immense excitement. The Portuguese rider made his Grand Tour debut at the 2020 Giro d'Italia and has since every year focused on the Corsa Rosa. In 2024 he aims for the Tour and is in the form of his life ahead of the race.
Almeida was a shock in the first Grand Tour of his career, racing most of the 2020 Giro in the pink jersey and finishing fourth. The following year he finished sixth, after a poor start which also included domestique work for Remco Evenepoel. In 2022 he abandoned in the final week whilst sitting on the podium, whilst in 2023 he finally finished on the podium - winning a mountain stage in the final week. The 25-year old Portuguese also has two Vuelta a España editions under his belt, finishing fourth and ninth in 2022 and 2023 respectively. He has never finished below ninth in any Grand Tour he's started.
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This year he is part of UAE Team Emirates' master plan to win the Tour de France. His spring was rather modest with an 11th place at Paris-Nice, and a 9th spot at the Volta a Catalunya where he supported Tadej Pogacar to overall victory. But after a training camp, his return to racing at the Tour de Suisse was nothing but superb, winning two stages and finishing second in the overall classification, almost taking the yellow jersey despite having spent large kilometers leading Adam Yates up the many Swiss mountains.
After having won the final time-trial and finished second in the race's GC, Almeida's statement is one that leaves quite a lot open as to whether he was superior to Yates. “Would I have won the tour if I had not worked for him? We will never know." The Portuguese climber looks to be on the form of his life and is a rider that frequently performs better in the Grand Tours. He will be a very dangerous and interesting weapon for UAE.
Yates won stage 7 as the two dropped the competition together but it was evident that Almeida had not gone to the absolute limit. “He is a very nice person. When we rode away together, he asked me what we were going to do. I asked if I could win and he immediately said yes," Yates admit in a post-race interview. "It shows what a great person he is, what a good teammate. He was also very good himself, so he could have easily won. Credit to him for that.”
We will see if the same scenario repeats at the Tour de France, or if Almeida can take his game up another level and not only match Yates, but also the likes of Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard who come to the Tour without competition.
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Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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- To Twoje przemyślenia te bla, bla :)
Dariusz08-11-2026 - Uwielbiam patrzeć, jak wyjeżdża na czoło peletonu i zaczyna się rzeź...Dariusz08-11-2026
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parisbound0008-11-2026 - there needs to be space in life for pointless comments!Ketterechts08-11-2026
- That is a very lazy way of putting it but so far on this website it seems like everyone is happy to look at everything lazily, even things that annoy them intensely. All they want to do is state their feeling and position but ask most to analyse a problem or come up with solutions or improvements and you’re stunned by silence. Nobody even really knows how this all happens. It’s very simple and quick to just say the UCI did it but I bet you they didn’t, I bet you not more than 2 people were involved, more likely just 1. The UCI may be ultimately responsible but it is not their decision, this is about hierarchy, power and delegation. The fact that protest is possible also means it isn’t over and that MORE people could get involved for a thorough review which could throw up anything. It is highly likely it was a sole commissar who decided and has that power in a first round. Therein might lie the problem the UCI has to consider, is it acceptable to give so much authority to one single person when it is quite possible for them to have a natural bias or be too easily susceptible to imposed bias. Who is to say an individual in this position isn’t susceptible to collaboration with outside players with interests in the results, nations, families, teams, betting companies, etc. On the one hand we have sports where these problems have been worked on way more to reduce such problems, on the other hand we have sports with far stricter and more draconian rules not even concerning safety or obstruction that nobody really questions like false starts or stepping out of lane or zones in athletics. If cycling hastowork on itself, it would be good if protagonists (all kinds) would start doing a little more than just moaning over outcomes.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Yes, so why not make comments less pointless?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- What a race! I didn't expect Vanthourenhout to collapse like that, and Wyseure did take the fight to Nys, but there was no doubt at the end. I also wonder what Aubin Sparfel would be capable of were he to race in the elites now. In the U23 ranks he is making good work of Giel Lejeune, who himself is among the better riders in the elites, and a top 10 contender in the big races (3rd at Kleebergcross, 8th at Berencross and 5th at Heerderstrand). In the French Cup, Sparfel is significantly better than Romain Debord (8th at Koppenbergcross and 10th at the Euros) and Rémi Lelandais (12th at Koppenbergcross and 19th at the Euros).
Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026 - There really was nothing in it. Schreiber was so much faster, and Brand was fighting to stay in the wheel in the sprint. Schreiber did move a bit, but to say she closed the door doesn't make sense because Brand couldn't enter it anyway, abd she wasn't impeded.Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026
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- Thibau Nys does exactly what Iserbyt is calling forRafionain-Glas08-11-2026
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