Pogacar hurt by loss Almeida as the mountains loom

Sunday might have been a relatively straightforward day for Tadej Pogačar to keep hold of his Tour de France yellow jersey, but the following days will be made significantly more difficult for him and the whole UAE Team Emirates-XRG team following the loss of João Almeida.

Almeida was the victim of the huge crash in the GC group on Friday’s Mûr de Bretagne stage, and not only did he lose a significant amount of time, but worse, he suffered significant injuries. This morning, the Portuguese rider rolled out of Chinon with dressings on his visible wounds, though it was surely the broken rib that was the main limiting factor. With 84km of the day’s stage remaining, he could take it no more, climbing off his bike and out of the race.

Almeida is one of Pogačar’s key lieutenants in the mountains, and the initial plan had been to keep him high on GC, but he lost more than 12 minutes in Friday’s crash, and now he’s gone.  

“We’re really sad that we lost João today, I think it was just too much, I was suffering today on the bike, I cannot imagine him with all the pain,” Pogačar said.

“We were going so fast all day, so it must have been really, really painful. He showed the last two days he doesn’t give up just because he doesn’t want to continue, but it was un-sufferable. I have so much respect for him.”

Almeida has had his best ever season, recently winning two stages and GC at the Tour de Suisse along with the overall at both Itzulia Basque Country and the Tour de Romandie, and many had tipped him to finish on the Tour de France podium alongside Pogačar.

“It was a luxury to have him in the GC battle. He could do a great result here in the Tour for himself, and for sure he would be a big help in the mountains, morally and physically,” Pogačar continued.

Sunday’s ninth stage was hard for everyone involved and was ridden at extreme speed, being recorded as one of the fastest road stages in Tour history. That, combined with a strong breakaway and crosswinds, made for a tough day, even for Pogačar.

“In the end, also the heat was making it super difficult, also you have Jonas Rickaert and Mathieu van der Poel [Alpecin-Deceninck] in the front, I think they made it difficult as well, so it was a really hard.”

On Monday, the Tour de France heads into the mountains for a Bastille Day appointment in the Massif Central, where Pogačar and his enforced change of strategy are likely to meet the first test.

“We will see, now we don’t have João, maybe we follow and we see. It’s a big day in France, and we will see a lot of French riders on the attack, so it will be hard to control from the start.”