João Almeida skips Pogacar Tour duty to lead at the Giro d’Italia

Speaking to reporters at the UAE Team Emirates-XRG media day in Benidorm on Saturday, Almeida outlined that he would ride the Giro and the Vuelta a España. He led the race for two weeks as a neo-pro in 2020 prior to finishing fourth overall, while he placed third overall in 2023.

Almeida crashed out of this year’s Tour, but he recovered to place second overall behind Jonas Vingegaard at the Vuelta a España. He had placed fourth overall on his Tour debut in 2024, when he helped Pogačar to the final overall victory.

“I like all the races,” Almeida said. “We are trying to find a good place for everybody that everybody is satisfied and happy. I would be happy with any programme, but I am very happy to go back to the Giro d’Italia.”

Almeida will start his season at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana before riding Paris-Nice and the Volta a Catalunya ahead of the Giro. He will then ride the Portuguese Championships and the Vuelta a Burgos before turning his attention to the Vuelta a España.

It is not yet clear if Almeida will be joined by Isaac del Toro,  in the UAE line-up at the Giro, with the Mexican set to reveal his 2026 racing programme later on Saturday. “I think you can ask him later,” Almeida said. The Portuguese will, however, be joined by Adam Yates and Jay Vine at the first Grand Tour of the 2026 season.

The 40km time trial on stage 10 of the Giro looks well-suited to Almeida’s characteristics, but he dismissed the idea that his decision to ride the corsa rosa had been decided by the route.

“The route doesn’t affect that much, I’m pretty complete,” Almeida said. “More mountains or time trialling doesn’t change that much for me. I like to go back to Giro. I spoke to the management team about it. They gave me the opportunity to do it.”

While Remco Evenepoel has ruled out riding the Giro, RCS Sport still hold out hopes that Vingegaard will make his debut in the race. Almeida said that he would welcome Vingegaard’s presence at the race.

“It would be nice,” Almeida said. “He’s one of the best and he brings more meaning to the race. If you win there, people will say it’s a higher level. I’ve raced with him a few times and if he goes, it’s going to be nice racing of course.”

Almeida smiled when asked if he could beat Vingegaard after pushing him for three weeks. “Everybody’s beatable right? Well, maybe not Tadej Pogačar...” Almeida said. “Of course, the Vuelta was a different scenario, a different approach. For sure, we have no fear of anybody.”