João Almeida could be forgiven for cursing his bad luck in the Vuelta a España on Thursday as the Portuguese racer pulled back 11 seconds on overall leader Jonas Vingegaard in the race’s third week time trial, but was left wondering if it could have been a whole lot more.
Fears about race security after multiple pro-Palestine protests had caused the partial suspension of two stages meant the Valladolid time trial route was reduced from its original distance of 27.2 kilometres to just 12.2 kilometres.
Had the time trial been the full distance, it might have been a significantly bigger dent in Vingegaard’s advantage. The Visma-Lease a Bike leader himself said he was relieved that he had limited the damage inflicted by Almeida, and that “such a flat, long course would have favoured riders like João.”
Instead, Almeida was only able to claw back a relatively small amount of time, meaning the entire Vuelta a España will now come down to the crunch ascent of Bola del Mundo – assuming security reasons do not lead to further alterations in the course between now and Saturday.