Are these the first signs of weakness in JOAO ALMEIDA (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)? On this 17th stage of the Vueltawho saw the young Italian Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) To win alone and glean its first success among professionals, we also saw the first signs of fatigue in Portuguese JOAO ALMEIDAsecond in the general classification. The winner of Angliru also lost two small seconds on arrival on his rival, the leader in the general classification, Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma | Lease A Bike), at the end of this stage. A fact particularly challenged the followers: the conversation between the Portuguese and the Danish during the ascent. At the microphone of several media after arrival, the leader in the training UAE Team Emirates-XRG returned to this conversation.
“I preferred to put my own rhythm …”
“I'm just tired like everyone else, but yes, another big step until Madrid”the 27 -year -old Portuguese begins. “The climb was very stiff at the beginning, then super windy, which made the effort complicated. I preferred to put my own rhythm, because they were too hard at the start, and I knew that I could come back”he said. “We often changed steering, sometimes headwind, sometimes in the way or back, so it was special. Too bad everything was still blackened by fires, but congratulations to the firefighters who protected the houses. In the end, we found ourselves almost all alone, and that did not change much. Jonas (Vingegaard, editor's note) was not at best, but I was a bit all in the same boat”he admits.
But what does the second in the general classification say to the Danish leader? “I just told him that the wind was strong, nothing special”he explains. “For the time trial, we will see, we can only wait. I think we are in a fairly similar form, unless we have a bad day. I just hope that it will not be me and that I will have good legs. The route matters little, flat or on the coast, it does not change much”concludes JOAO ALMEIDA.
