'We're closer and closer' - Almeida buoyed by UAE's Vuelta TTT win over Visma

UAE were third at the second time check, but they finished strongly to overhaul Lidl-Trek and Ineos to claim stage victory. It briefly looked as though their effort would put Ayuso into the red jersey, but Jonas Vingegaard’s Visma | Lease a Bike squad limited the damage in the final kilometres to take second place, eight seconds down.

That result puts Vingegaard back in the maillot rojo, with Ayuso second overall at eight seconds, with Almeida third on the same time.

“We knew we would be fighting for the win, but there are a lot of good teams here, so we needed to be realistic,” Almeida said. “I think we did a perfect job, and we deserve it as well.”

UAE Team Emirates-XRG scorched around the course at an average speed of 56.855kph, but the gaps were always likely to be tight among the GC contenders, and so it proved. Although Visma set out with just seven riders after losing Axel Zingle on stage 2, they had enough firepower to limit their losses to UAE.

“I think it’s good for the team atmosphere to get even better,” Almeida said. “It gives us confidence. Of course, the gaps are small, and it doesn’t really mean anything – but it’s a good start.”

It comes as a boost to Almeida and Ayuso after they were caught relatively flat footed by Vingegaard on the uphill finales at Limone Piemonte and Ceres during the Vuelta’s early excursion in Italy.

Ayuso and Almeida’s cohabitation in the UAE line-up has been the subject of much scrutiny in the lead-up to the race, but the pair were on the same page on Wednesday in Figueres. They looked smooth in the team time trial, and they had Mikkel Bjerg and Marc Soler for company all the way to the line.

“It was good. We had a plan and it went perfect,” Almeida said. “The team was very strong. We had some surprises – in a good way – so it was an amazing team effort. Congrats to everybody.

“In the last kilometres, everybody was a little bit tired, but we were just going all in. I was always looking back to see my teammates because the time that counts is the fourth guy. But I was smashing the pedals trying to get the seconds, so I’m happy.”

UAE fell short of taking the maillot rojo on Wednesday, but Almeida shook off the idea that it was strategically beneficial to give the weight of race leadership to Vingegaard and Visma for stage 6, which sees the race enter the Pyrenees with a summit finish at Pal in Andorra.

“I would like to have it, actually,” Almeida smiled. “It’s a beautiful jersey, I never wore it before. It doesn’t matter when, but we’re closer and closer to it, so let’s see if we can grab it. We’ll give it everything we have.”