Joao Almeida the seventh fraction of the season ends in second place Tour of Switzerland 2024. The runner of UAE Team Emirates he reached the finish line in Villars-sur-Ollon in parade with his teammate Adam Yates who won the stage and further consolidated his lead at the top of the general classification, ahead of the Portuguese, second at 31″, and Egan Bernal (Ineos – Grenadiers) third at 1’51”. As in the previous two days, the Emirati team once again made it clear that they were the strongest and the arrival of the two captains on parade put the icing on the cake to a race dominated practically from the first to the last day.
“I felt good, luckily it didn’t rain and we had a nice day. – comments the 25 year old Portuguese after the stage – Then we finished first and second which is incredible. We expected that Ineos would keep a very high pace to try to understand if someone was having a bad day. At the end Mattias Skjelmose attacked and then I also found a good moment to attack. Then I asked on the radio if Adam could reach me because I didn’t want to attack my teammate, I just seized the moment.”
Although he had the opportunity to continue his action, the native of Caldas da Rainha therefore preferred to wait for his teammate and not attack him directly, thus allowing the team to celebrate the double: “When he reached me we then continued together, – concludes a smiling Almeida – I wanted to win, in my head I said to myself ‘give me the victory, you are the yellow jersey‘but still it was a good day. We weren’t sure what to do, it’s not the kind of problem we normally have. The team just wanted us to win, it didn’t matter who. In the end, however, it was a good day, that’s all.”
