Joao Almeida targets Vuelta after blood analysis forced Giro withdrawal

Almeida is racing for the first time since the Volta a Catalunya in March. He had originally been targeting the Giro d'Italia as his main goal of the year, but illness forced him to skip the Grand Tour altogether and take a two-month break. 

The Portuguese rider sits in 125th in the general classification, over 38 minutes down on race leader Alex Baudin, and he is using the Dauphiné as a primer for goals down the line in 2026, having ruled himself out of the Tour de France.

"It's been hard racing," Almeida said at the start of stage 4 on Wednesday to Cyclingpro.net. "As expected coming back, I knew my shape is not good at all as I'm used to be, but yeah, it's part of the process. I've been feeling better every day. I think yesterday I did a quite really good TTT, so I was very happy after that. So today is another day of racing. Hopefully it's sunny and nice, so makes things a little bit more easy."

UAE Team Emirates-XRG finished in ninth place on the stage 3 team time trial, 1:01 behind winners Visma | Lease a Bike. 

Almeida withdrew from the Giro citing an illness that developed after the Volta a Catalunya. 

"We saw many wrong things in my blood analysis, so that's it," Almeida said when asked about the illness. "I don't really have to say much about it. First of all, I tried to keep training, to see how things would go, and then eventually I had to stop. It is what it is.

"I feel good on the bike, just missing the shape, you know. Just need to train and prepare better. But overall I feel good, just lack of preparation. I feel like I'm also recovering good every day. That's a really good sign. Looking forward for the future and for big goals."

Those big goals revolve around the Vuelta a España, where Almeida has performed well in recent years. Almeida will be hoping to go one better than in 2025, when he finished runner-up to Jonas Vingegaard, 1:16 down and took a stage win on the brutal Angliru. 

His outlook for the last Grand Tour of the 2026 season was positive. "Yeah, I think so," Almeida replied when asked whether the Vuelta remained a realistic target after his difficult 2026 season to this point.

The closing stages of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes go into the high mountains with stages 7 and 8 featuring summit finishes on Grand Colombier and Plateau de Solaison - Brison. Almeida confirmed he would ride in support of UAE teammate Isaac del Toro.

"Of course the shape doesn't come in a few days. It's months of preparation," he said. "Hopefully, I will feel better every day and it will improve a little bit. But those last days are really, really hard, really depending. I'll see what I can do and help Del Toro."