The GC stalemate between João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) has continued at the Vuelta a España, with two brutal days in Asturias bringing only a two-second gain for the Portuguese rider, and that’s only with bonus seconds.
Even with 338.6km, almost 8,000 metres of elevation gain, and six categorised climbs on stages 13 and 14 to l’Angliru and La Farrapona, only centimetres separated them at both finish lines, with Almeida winning the former and Vingegaard crossing the line ahead for second place behind the solo break winner on the latter.
If Sunday’s medium mountain stage in Galicia goes the way it looks – to another breakaway – then the pair of favourites will enter the final week with only 48 seconds separating them. It’s close, yes, and still open, with either man able to end up with red by the time we reach Madrid, but if Almeida does stay in second, then the comments he made six days ago on stage 9 will ring loudly in the ears of UAE.
“I missed a little bit, maybe my teammates today,” Almeida said, after losing 30 seconds – the bulk of his deficit – to Vingegaard at Valdezcaray on stage 9. He cited the “Surprise factor” as a reason why he’d not got on Vingegaard’s wheel when he surged away, but couldn’t help admit that “nobody was with me in the end, so it is what it is”, at the finish.
It seemed as though it would prove a moot point, with the brutal climbing left to climb at this year’s Vuelta surely set to separate the two men further – but the closer we get to madrid, and those 30 seconds look more valuable by the stage, with Almeida improving, or at least holding his level, but still being unable to distance Vingegaard.
Where can Almeida win the Vuelta from now on?
The equation for UAE isn’t too complicated, with a gap under a minute, meaning only one good day for Almeida coinciding with a poor one for Vingegaard could bring them red, but that requires the latter, something which doesn’t happen very often, to arrive at some point between stages 16 and 20.
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