One other day, one other demonstration. Whereas Tadej Pogačar prepares for the Tour de France at altitude at Isola 2000, the important thing members of his supporting solid continued their dominance on the Tour de Suisse on the shortened stage 6 to Blatten.
For the second consecutive afternoon, UAE Group Emirates claimed the primary two locations, tightening their grip on the final classification. After taking second behind his teammate Adam Yates to victory at Carì on Thursday, João Almeida helped himself to the win on Friday’s 42km. Yates got here throughout the road 4 seconds later to retain the yellow jersey.
Within the general standings, Yates’ lead over Almeida is now down to twenty-eight seconds, however the UAE pair have prolonged their buffer over everyone else. Egan Bernal (Ineos), third at 1:28, is the one rider inside two minutes because the race enters its last weekend.
Almeida had highlighted his energy on Carì on stage 5 when he teed up Yates’ successful transfer earlier than catching and passing Bernal and Enric Mas within the last kilometre to take second place on the stage.
Friday’s finale at Blatten adopted an identical sample, with Yates attacking with 3.5km to go and opening a small hole. After sitting on Bernal et al, Almeida bridged throughout to Yates within the last kilometre and he later pulled away from his teammate to win the stage by 4 seconds.
“We anticipated that Ineos would put up the tempo, however we needed the tempo a bit larger, so we had the fellows pulling, [Jan] Christen and [Isaac] Del Toro, after which Adam went, however perhaps from a bit too far. I used to be on the wheels, however I felt good, so I bridged to Adam. From there, we had been each pulling, and I crossed the road first.”
Almeida’s evaluation was echoed by Yates, who acknowledged that his assault might need been a contact too hasty.
The most recent race content material, interviews, options, critiques and professional shopping for guides, direct to your inbox!
“Possibly I went a bit too early on the climb, however I felt fairly good,” Yates mentioned. “On the finish, João got here throughout to me and he managed to drop me. It was one other robust efficiency from the crew.
“We at all times knew from the start it will be a very good race for each of us and we have proven that previously few days. We’re each in fine condition and we’re each combating for the win. It is tremendous good for the crew to be on this place.”
Final week, it was introduced that Friday’s stage can be severely diminished in size as each the Nufenen and Furka Passes had been unpassable. Though Almeida has constructed a status over time for his qualities as a diesel, he proved the strongest on the 42km stage.
“I feel it was one of many shortest levels I ever did and it was fairly explosive however fortunately I did nicely,” mentioned Almeida.
Yates was enthusiastic in regards to the novel format. “It’s fairly good to do one thing totally different,” he mentioned. “It doesn’t at all times need to be 200k. It was fairly enjoyable.”
With two levels of the Tour de Suisse remaining, the battle for general victory appears set to be an in-house affair between Yates and Almeida. The Portuguese rider was the stronger on Friday and he must also be favoured by Sunday’s concluding time trial, however the penultimate stage over the Col de la Croix may change the lie of the land.
“It’s the queen stage,” Yates mentioned. “It’s solely down or up, there’s no valley. Yesterday, we acquired fairly organised within the valley earlier than the final climb, whereas tomorrow will probably be trickier to try this.”
Almeida acknowledged that the ultimate time trial performed to his strengths, although he confused that securing victory for the crew was the precedence over their private ambitions. “So long as we do first and second, and it doesn’t matter who, then I feel we’re each comfortable,” mentioned Almeida.
After driving the Giro d’Italia in every of his first 4 seasons as an expert, Almeida is ready to make his Tour de France debut this yr within the service of Pogačar, with Yates and Pavel Sivakov additionally set to characteristic in an all-star line-up. As issues stand, and consistent with UAE’s plan for the reason that winter, not one of the riders who helped Pogačar to Giro d’Italia victory final month are anticipated to line out alongside him on the Tour.
Almeida had a comparatively subdued begin to 2024, however he seems to be hitting his stride on the eve of the primary occasion.
“I’ve been working rather a lot,” he mentioned. “It was a tough begin to the yr, I used to be sick and I needed to work to get the form again.”
