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.
Almeida was brought to the front by Marc Soler and made repeated efforts to try and split up the group of favourites and gain time on the likes of Vingegaard. But after being unable to shake off the pre-race favourite and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Almeida flicked his elbow for someone to come through without a response from either rival.
The trio stalled and were quickly caught by the remainder of the GC group, who were chasing, with 14 riders arriving at the finish together, 2:35 after Ayuso had won. Almeida was under no illusion that Vingegaard had no reason to help keep the attack going, but was nevertheless looking ahead to more opportunities after his efforts came to nothing.
"I saw they [Visma] didn't really want to go for a hard finish. I asked Marc to pull a bit to try, but I thought the climb would be a little bit harder to be honest," said Almeida to Eurosport at the finish.
"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."
Was he surprised by Vingegaard's lack of cooperation? "He didn't really have to [pull], so I get it," he said, "But it is what it is. I think he doesn't really pull a lot of times, right?"
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.
But the UAE rider wants more, and is eager to get stuck into the 'harder' mountain tests that await in the second week of the Vuelta, which includes summit finishes to L'Angliru (12.4km at 9.8%) and La Farrapona. Lagos de Somiedo (16.8km at 6%).
"I've been feeling good every day, so I think it's a good sign, but I'm looking forward to the next hard ones," said Almeida, who is now UAE's sole leader after Ayuso, despite winning stage 7, lost more than seven minutes to the GC favourites a day prior on stage 6.
He wasn't shocked by Ayuso's bounceback, however, and will rely on him being strong in support if he is to properly challenge Vingegaard and undo Visma's defensive tactics in the coming 14 stages.
"No, I wasn't really surprised. Juan is a great rider, super class and super strong, so he deserves it," Almeida said. "It's been ups and downs for him, it's a hard road, so I think he deserves it, so congrats to him, and also for the whole team, who were all pretty amazing today."
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