'Thomas came like a rocket' – João Almeida shakes up Giro d'Italia

João Almeida emptied a rather suspect sachet of red sauce into the tupperware box  of his recovery meal after he took a seat for his post-race press conference atop Monte Bondone. Cue gasps from a horrified sala stampa. For some, questions about his victory on stage 16 of the Giro d’Italia would have to wait until he had accounted for this outrage.

“Don’t tell the nutritionist, but it’s ketchup,” Almeida confirmed to murmurs of disapproval from the front row. It was the only false step of a day that saw the Portuguese rider insert himself firmly into the picture as a potential overall winner of this race in Rome on Sunday evening.

After two weeks of relative inertia, the general classification battle finally picked up some momentum on the road to Monte Bondone. Perhaps it was only to be anticipated, given the severity of a day that featured some 5,200m of total climbing. More surprising, however, was the identity of the rider who eventually prised this race open as the gradient stiffened into double digits.

After his UAE Team Emirates companion Jay Vine had whittled down the group of favourites midway up the interminable climb, Almeida accelerated with a shade under 6km remaining. A kilometre or so later, Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) managed to bridge across, but Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) was betraying signs of difficulty further down the mountain.

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“I just did the best effort I could, I was hoping for the best,” Almeida said of his initial attack. “I was a bit surprised that Geraint came like a fucking rocket. I was like, so surprised, and I tried to follow him. I was suffering to the end, but we did very good work together.”

The finale of this Giro was expected to be coloured by a duel between Thomas and Roglič, but Almeida showed himself to be much more than the race’s third man with his aggression here. Victory in the two-up sprint against Thomas sees him move up to second overall, 18 seconds behind the Welshman and 11 ahead of Roglič, who lost almost half a minute in the closing kilometres.

“I’ve been so close to the win in a Grand Tour so many times, so I think this was a step forwards for my career and also for my confidence,” Almeida said. “I think I am still the same rider, but this shows that maybe I’m doing things right.”

Pogacar

Almeida wears the white jersey of best young rider, but he is already a youthful veteran of this race, having competed at the Giro in each of his four seasons as a professional. As a neophyte in 2020, he led the race for two weeks en route to fourth overall. He won plenty of admirers for his stout defence of the maglia rosa there, but – a defiant solo pursuit at Piancavallo aside – he rarely showed much by way of aggression.

In his past two appearances, Almeida was more often a follower than a leader when the road climbed, but even during this Giro’s buttoned-down opening phase, there were hints at a different approach this time around. On the short climb to Bergamo Alta on Sunday, for instance, Almeida was the principal attacker. Perhaps some advice from teammate Tadej Pogačar, preparing for the Tour de France, had an impact.

“We texted a few days ago, and he just told me to attack and take the jersey. I said, ‘I don’t have your legs, take it easy,’” smiled Almeida, who downplayed the idea that his attack had been a break from his default, cautious settings.

“I mean it was pretty steep, around 9 or 10%, and I think I was going at 20 or 21kph. There is a little bit of drag, but you don’t save a lot on the wheels there, it was the all the same effort for everyone.”

When Almeida wore pink for fourteen days in 2020, his press conferences were polite but shyly perfunctory. He cut an altogether more laid back and loquacious figure here after his maiden Grand Tour stage victory. Out on the road, too, there seemed to be a newfound confidence, as he deployed Vine to dictate the tempo midway up the final climb rather than waiting for Thomas or Roglič to seize the initiative.

“I was feeling good. Towards the final, I saw that the others were waiting for me to do something because I put the team working,” Almeida said. “It was maybe a good sign they didn’t attack, because maybe there were afraid of me, or maybe they were not amazing. I just tried to do my race and do my best.

“In the first two weeks, there were not really chances to make differences due to the weather, and due to sickness as well. Jay was sick, I was sick. Today was the first day we could take the chance to do something, and we grabbed it.”

The chance for something altogether bigger has now presented itself. Almeida paused for a few seconds when asked if he could win the Giro. “I think I can,” he said. “It won’t be easy at all against Roglič and Geraint Thomas. It’s a very, very big challenge, but of course, I believe.”

On this evidence, there is no point in pretending otherwise.