La Vuelta: João Almeida gains time on the “red” but sees Vingegaard escape

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The final stage before the rest day was a shake-up in the Vuelta a España, delivered by the favorite for the final victory, Jonas Vingegaard of Visma Lease a Bike. The Dane made a surprise attack in the initial phase of the final climb of the day, up to the Valdezcaray ski resort, and managed to escape João Almeida, winning the stage with a 24-second lead over Thomas Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) and the Caldense rider.

Despite being at the front of the peloton at the start of the attack, the surprise factor caught the Caldas native, as well as the other contenders for the overall standings and the stage win, off guard. There were still 11km to go when the Dane asked via team radio who could launch him. Matteo Jorgenson accelerated the race, and Vingegaard shot up the mountain, leaving Ciconne, the only one who managed to follow him for some time, behind, to avoid being caught. João Almeida, who was left without team support at the same time, sought to climb in his own style and ended up minimizing losses. In addition to the 24 seconds, the Dane gained another six seconds on João Almeida through bonuses, now 38 seconds behind the Visma leader and 1:15 behind Trostein Traeen, who retained the red jersey.

"They had the surprise factor; we weren't expecting it. They attacked hard, and I couldn't close the gap," commented João Almeida at the end of the stage. The Caldas native was accompanied for a while by Felix Gal and Thomas Pidcock, who ended up finishing second on the stage, but couldn't count on the Brit's help to close the gap on Vingegaard. "I saw they were at their limit," he said, also not hiding some frustration at having fallen behind too early without the help of his UAE teammates. "I felt a bit short of teammates today; I didn't have anyone with me from the team at the end, but it is what it is..." he said. João Almeida felt good during the climb and believes that, with the right support, the climb could have been different. "I think I would have been able to stay on his [Jonas Vingegaard's] wheel if we hadn't been caught by surprise; [the climb] wasn't that steep, but we'll never know," he added.

Pidcock's speech at the end of the stage was intriguing. "When Jonas is going, he's hard to follow, and he had four teammates between me and him when he attacked. I felt like [João] Almeida was the one to follow, and maybe we could catch up," he said. During the broadcast, João Almeida could be seen asking for help from the British rider, who simply followed his lead. "He yelled at me a few times to get ahead, but I was at my limit, and he's like a tractor. When he took off in the last kilometer, it was impressive; I only managed to pass him at the end," he summarized.

La Vuelta now stops on Monday and returns to the road on Tuesday, with a new finish coinciding with a top-class mountain prize. The week is packed with mountains, and the highlight will be Friday, with the climb of L'Angliru.

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