João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was frustrated by Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) but understood the Dane’s actions as he refused to pull on the final climb to Cerlers on stage 7 of the Vuelta a España.
Vingegaard, as he did on stage 6, stayed defensive up the final climb, with victory going up the road to Almeida’s teammate, Juan Ayuso, and little GC action unfolding behind – until the final 7km, when the Portuguese rider tried to light things up.
“But it is what it is – I tried – maybe there was a gap for somebody, but they didn’t want to cooperate in the end, but one less day.”
Almeida sits third overall on GC going into stage 8, 2:41 behind Torstein Træen (Bahrain-Victorious) and eight seconds in arrears of Vingegaard, with little splitting the pair in the first week, having arrived as the number one and two favourites.
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