Cycling: Joao Almeida brings momentum to the Giro d’Italia

In the third week, the Giro d’Italia really gets going. Life giver is Joao Almeida. The Portuguese was already the most active in the second week among the otherwise hesitant class riders. He twitched here and there and with a determined start caused the Bora captain Lennard Kämna to lose time to the other favorites last Friday in Bergamo.

After the rest day, however, the 24-year-old really hit the ground running on Tuesday. The setting was Monte Bondone, a 1630 meter high peak in the Trento ski area. After great preparatory work by the former role king Jay Vine, who had gotten a contract for the WorldTour by riding indoors on the Zwift platform, the captain of the UAE team withdrew. The favorites Geraint Thomas and Primoz Roglic looked at each other in amazement.

Almeida’s teammate, two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar, must have liked that very much. “We texted each other a few days ago. And he told me to get the stage and the pink jersey,” Almeida said smiling at the finish, while slopping copious amounts of ketchup on his recovery meal. It wasn’t enough for Rosa, Thomas still caught up with Almeida. But then he beat the 13-year-old Briton in the finish sprint, the day’s victory and advancement to second place were the reward.

At the same time, Almeida’s advance really messed up the hierarchies at the Giro. Thomas kept up with him and took over Rosa. Top favorite Primoz Roglic but had a small slump. He lost 25 seconds to the leading duo. He also fell back to third place in the overall standings. “Maybe he’s still suffering from the wounds from the fall,” Matteo Tossato, sports director of Thomas’s Ineos team, suggested to “nd”. He had already interpreted the moment when his Jumbo Visma team had given up leadership as a sign of Roglic’s weakness. That’s when UAE took over and Jay Vine built the ski jump for its captain.

In the Roglic camp, de-dramatization was the order of the day. “It’s just a few seconds, no drama,” said sport director Marc Reef. The Dutchman also didn’t want to know anything about the fact that his frontman was significantly impaired by the consequences of a fall. But that can be classified as the usual rhetorical obfuscation strategy. Admitting weakness means inviting others to attack.

The new star of the Giro is now Almeida. And despite his young age, he already has considerable experience in the Tour of Italy. In 2020, surprisingly for many at the time, he drove for 15 days in the pink jersey. He proved to be extremely tough, seemed to have fallen behind, but kept coming back and finished the tour in an impressive fourth place. The following year he was sixth. However, he mainly had to work for his captain Remco Evenepoel – which even led to arguments among the young lads. Only after Evenepoel’s departure was he number one. Finally, last year, when an interesting professional switched to the UAE racing team, which was already rich in talent, he dropped out in fourth place because of Corona.

Almeida is now the clear number one in his team’s Giro squad. He has the blessing of Pogacar, he hopes to avoid Corona this time. And on the road he is currently the strongest. He knows that himself. Without false modesty, he says: “Yes, I can win this Giro.” He adds that it will of course be difficult against Thomas and Roglic. At the start of the third week, he impressively showed how it can be done.

The next tests for the class riders are the 18th stage on Thursday in the Val di Zoldo ski area, the king’s stage the day after to the Drei Zinnen of Lavaredo and the mountain time trial on Saturday. While the paved goat path, over which the time trial takes place on Monte Lussari, is being driven for the first time at the Giro, the Drei Zinnen are a real classic. In 2013, in snow, fog and rain, Vincenzo Nibali trumped as the pink ghost in a true cold spectacle.

In 1967, when the Three Peaks were first descended, the conditions were so impossible that the result was not counted. Spectators completely disinhibited by the cold, alcohol consumption and adrenaline pushed the chasing group so hard that they not only caught up with the poor escape of the day, but the Giro organizers had to bring themselves to cancel it. This part of the day went down in the annals of the Tour of Italy as the »disappeared mountain stage«. So this Giro will be decided on mythical terrain before the winner can ride around the Roman Coliseum in pink on Sunday. It is very possible that this man will then be called Almeida.