'We just feel relaxed because we have such a good leader' - Almeida at ease working with Pogacar

João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) said a puncture and a crash on the opening climb of stage 4 left him unable to rejoin the peloton, on a day he had been expected to work for Tadej Pogačar in the Andorran mountains.

Almeida was dropped early on the Port d'Envalira as Decathlon CMA CGM lifted the pace, and finished the stage in a large gruppetto while Pogačar rode clear alone to win by 39 seconds and take a 3:21 lead in the general classification.

"I wanted to make a good pace especially. I wasn't feeling great, but I also had a puncture in the worst possible moment, just before I tumbled over my bike," Almeida told the media, including Domestique. "I got lost in the bush and it was impossible to come back."

The group behind grew through the day and the time limit became a live concern, though he was relaxed about the arithmetic.

"I think the group was just getting bigger and bigger and bigger. We knew more or less how much time we had left on the finish line, I think it was all under control. But on the other side the group was so big that we just thought, there's no way they're going to keep us out of the race, because otherwise the race is over," he said. "The pace was always decent. Even in the downhills we were taking some risks, but nothing special."

The stage was 104.8 kilometres with 3,024 metres of climbing, starting and finishing in Andorra la Vella for the first time in the race's history.

With Pogačar now more than three minutes clear, the question is what the rest of the team ride for over the remaining stages. Almeida does not expect UAE to chase everything.

"It's always an opportunity, but it's still a long way to Granada this year. Many stages are tricky like today, so we need to be focused as a team, and the goal is the red jersey," he said. "I think we're going to have plenty of stage wins with Tadej. We don't need to go for every single one."

Almeida arrived at this Vuelta as the reigning runner-up, having finished second in 2025 at 1:16 behind Jonas Vingegaard and won the stage to the Angliru. Since then his season has been broken up by illness that cost him Paris-Nice and a planned Giro leadership, two months away from racing, a DNF at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and a crash on stage 4 of the Tour de Pologne that ended his race. Before Monaco he had one WorldTour result to his name in 2026, 38th at the Volta a Catalunya.

Asked whether riding alongside a leader that far ahead brings pressure, he said the opposite applies.

"We just feel relaxed because we have such a good leader, and we are completely focused as a team. We just need to do the work and the rest is going to come."