Portuguese cyclist João Almeida (UAE Emirates) said on Friday he probably experienced “the worst day on the bike”, falling from sixth to 10th place overall in the Tour of Spain, struck by illness.
“I’ve been sick, I knew I wouldn’t be very good today. I kept fighting, and in cycling that’s what it is. I have flu-like symptoms. It’s frustrating, everything went very well,” the cyclist reflected the 13th stage, the ‘queen’ of this edition.
At Tourmalet he crossed the finish line 15th, having spent much of the race alone chasing the pack of favourites, and remained 10th overall, 8.39 minutes off the lead.
The Dane Jonas Vingegaard, winner of the last two editions of the Tour de France, led the Jumbo-Visma ‘tri’ and completed the 134.7 kilometers between Formigal and Tourmalet in 3:51.10 hours, beating the North American Sepp Kuss, second, beat by 30 seconds, with Slovenian Primoz Roglic, Giro champion, in third with 33.
The new general classification keeps Kuss in the lead, now 1.37 minutes ahead of Roglic, second and 1.44 minutes ahead of Vingegaard. The Spaniard Juan Ayuso (UAE Emirates) is fourth, at 2.37.
Almeida lost contact early, as did Belgian Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) who, even with the team at his side, ‘fell’ to 19th place and saw his chances of revalidating the 2022 title disappear.
“I didn’t want to throw everything away, I kept suffering through everything I could. It must have been the worst day I ever had on the bike,” the Portuguese cyclist admitted.
He sits fifth in the 2022 edition and remains in the top 10, but admits he will “do what he can” both for himself and to “help Juan fight for the win”.
“We won’t be satisfied with fourth or third place. It’s all or nothing,” he said of the team’s strategy.
The high mountain adventure continues on Saturday in the 14th stage, which connects Sauveterre-de-Béar with Larra over 156.2 kilometers.
Source: DN
