Almeida's heavy crash mars Pogacar's 'perfect day' at Tour de France

Tadej Pogačar lived up to expectations by winning atop Mûr-de-Bretagne and storming back into the yellow jersey of the Tour de France on stage 7, but his day was marred by UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammate João Almeida’s heavy crash in the finale.

Almeida was among the fallers in a crash with 5km to go, and although he would complete the stage, he lost more than ten minutes and, with it, all hope of a podium finish at this Tour. It remains to be seen if he will be able to continue in the race, but his importance to Pogačar’s cause was already illustrated by events on the final climb up Mûr-de-Bretagne.

In normal circumstances, Almeida would have set a supersonic pace for Pogačar on the 2km haul to the finish, but instead it was left to Tim Wellens to go as far as he could before the world champion himself acceleration with 1.7km to go.

When both Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) tracked that move, Pogačar safely allowed the Belgian to take up the reins on the steepest portion of the climb. Pogačar was later helped by a lull that brought a group including teammate Jhonatan Narváez back in contact. The Ecuadorian provided a long, long lead-out on the false flat that led to the finish before Pogačar unleashed a crisp sprint to win ahead of Vingegaard, while he put two seconds into Evenepoel and the rest.

“I’m super happy with the win today, we did an almost perfect race,” Pogačar said. “But unfortunately, João crashed. I hope he’s ok. If he’s ok, it’s a perfect day. If he’s not, then this victory is for him. Right now, I just wish he is ok.”

The climb of Mûr-de-Bretagne was expected by many to provide a shoot-out between Pogačar and overnight leader Mathieu van der Poel, who won there in 2021. The Dutchman, however, paid a price for his efforts in the break on stage 6 and he was distanced on the climb.

Before then, however, UAE and Alpecin-Deceuninck found common cause to control the peloton and ensure the GC group would fight out the stage win.

“I think me and Mathieu both know this finish very well, and we wanted more or less the same, to win on this iconic climb,” Pogačar said. 

“I think he maybe left too much on the road, so we couldn’t have this rematch. But the day went like we planned, and the win was amazing.

“We did an amazing job today. All the teammates were perfect. It was a hot day. We spent a lot of energy. It was a super fast and hard day, but we had the plan and we stuck to it.” 

They stuck to it to a point. It’s hard to shake off the sense that Almeida’s crash compelled Pogačar to attack a little sooner than he would have liked, and it perhaps changed the dynamic of the entire ascent.

“Tim led me out to the bottom of the climb and normally João should be there, but he crashed,” Pogačar said. “But then Jhonny came through in the last kilometre and he did a superb job to keep in under control for a sprint and it was perfect for me.”

In the overall standings, Pogačar is back in the lead, 54 seconds ahead of Evenepoel, while Vingegaard is 1:17 down in fourth. “I’m back in yellow now, so let’s hope for two more easy days,” he said.

Pogačar’s thoughts were echoed by manager Mauro Gianetti, who had initial optimism that Almeida’s injuries would not rule him out of the Tour.

“The only thing not in the plan was João’s crash,” Gianetti said. “He’s restarted and he’s on the road to the finish of the race. We hope nothing is broken because he’s a very important rider for us.”