João Almeida powers to solo victory on stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse

João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) dominated the competition, taking an impressive solo victory on stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse in Piuro, with a near 50-kilometre solo effort. In the process, the Portuguese rider has bounced back from a frustrating opening stage to close part of the significant gap he was trailing in the general classification at the start of the stage.

Almeida powered away from Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL), the final riders who were able to hang on to the relentless pace set by the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider, with just under 2 kilometres from the summit of the Splügenpass. 

With 47 kilometres still to ride at the summit of the Splügenpass, it was an audacious move for Almeida to make, but on the long descent that followed, the Portuguese rider was able to defend his lead on the chasing group that crested the climb around 45 seconds behind. Almeida timed his effort well and was able to claim victory in Piuro with Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) finishing 2nd and Ben O'Connor (Jayco AlUla) finishing 3rd, 40 seconds behind the stage winner. 

O'Connor and Onley were able to distance themselves from the rest of the chase group in the closing kilometres and worked well together to stay clear and round out the stage's podium.

The race leader at the start of the stage, Romain Gregoire, rode a spirited race, distanced on the Splügenpass but was able to rejoin the chasing group on the long descent and finished in the main chase group, 1 minute behind Almeida to defend his race leadership.

Speaking after the stage, Almeida said, “It was a hard effort, really good teamwork, and it’s nice to finish it off.”

“There’s still a long way to go, a lot of time to get back, but I’m happy with the stage win and we are going to enjoy this one.”

When asked if he now thinks he is the favourite for the GC, Almeida said, “I have to disagree because I still have two minutes to take back and it’s going to be a super hard task. But yeah, we never give up.” “I need to try, if we don’t try, we will never know,” said Almeida on whether he is willing to attack on the upcoming queen stage.

It was a brutal start to stage four that began in Heiden with a fast opening on what was mainly flat terrain. Everything was building up to the Splügenpass where the stage would begin to take shape and we would get a clearer picture of the general classification.

The 8 man breakaway that contributed to the fast start included; Andrew August (INEOS Grenadiers), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), Larry Warbasse and Marius Mayrhofer (Tudor), Thomas Gloag (Visma | Lease a Bike), Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché-Wanty), and Sébastien Grignard (Lotto).

On the slopes of the Splügenpass worked hard for Almeida, setting a strong pace, and reduced the size of the peloton significantly. Eventually, Almeida took control of the pace setting and the front group consisted of less than 15 riders. With around 2 kilometres from the summit, only Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), and Onley were able to match the pace of Almeida, before the Portuguese rider powered away. Behind, race leader Grégoire had been distanced and found himself a small but difficult to close margin behind a group containing the current key rival for the GC, Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels).

Over the summit, Almeida found himself three-quarters of a minute ahead of a chase group featuring Vauquelin, whilst Grégoire was a short way off the back. The race leader fought spiritedly to eventually rejoin the main chase group on the descent.

There were attacks in the chase group, who weren’t cooperating the best, with Onley and Ben O’Connor pulling clear. Up ahead, Almeida would take the stage win, whilst Grégoire would defend his race lead. The 22-year-old Frenchman still leads the Tour de Suisse by 25 seconds over Vauquelin, whilst Almeida closed the gap significantly, moving up to 7th at 2:07 ahead of the queen stage.