'To be honest, I feel normal' - João Almeida ready to help Tadej Pogačar win Tour de France but says there's room for personal improvement

Three stage wins and an overall victory in the Tour de Suisse are usually the results of a major Tour de France contender, but Portuguese star João Almeida has almost completely ruled out any GC bid in the Tour. Instead, he has committed to helping teammate Tadej Pogačar win the Tour de France for a fourth time.

The UAE Team Emirates-XRG pro has had a spectacularly successful season so far, taking overall wins in three straight WorldTour races - the Itzulia Basque Country in April, the Tour de Romandie in May and the Tour de Suisse in June. His previous week-long WorldTour stage race victory was the Tour de Pologne back in 2021.

Yet despite his non-stop succession of top-level victories, the 26-year-old told A Bola newspaper that he had no sense that his current form was anything out of the ordinary, or that he was having a particularly exceptional year in terms of condition.

Almeida added, though, that while his next top priority would be to help Pogačar win the Tour, his final personal Grand Tour goal of the season would then be to take part in the Vuelta a España and potentially aim for a podium finish.

First, though, is July, where "I will be very involved in his [Pogacar's] work in the mountains, where he will need me, where I can be more useful to him, and that's why I don't think it makes sense to have any [personal] result in mind," Almeida told A Bola.

While such a strong performance this spring and earlier summer inevitably sparked speculation that Almeida could be an outside overall favourite, the man himself denied that he would be racing under any pressure to produce a top performance in France. Rather the main, overriding goal was to see Pogačar in yellow on stage 21 for a fourth time in six years.

"The objective is to help him win the Tour again. I might even be able to get a result for myself, but obviously, it's quite relative," was the most Almeida would say about personal objectives.

His comments to A Bola about his own condition were rather more striking, with the Portuguese racer saying that he had no sense of being in top condition right now.

"To be honest, I feel normal," he said. "I don't feel like I'm in peak form... super or unbeatable. I feel good, as I have felt since the beginning of the season. We all have bad days, but I feel pretty good.

"These are the times when we feel great, when we can handle whatever comes our way. But now I feel normal, well, and hopefully still with plenty of room for improvement. I'm continuing to improve every year. Or so I hope…"

Almeida also hinted that Pogačar might do the Vuelta, something which UAE's team manager Joxean Fernández Matxin recently told Cyclingnews would not be decided until after the Tour. Almeida also seemed to indicate, though, that there might not be as strict a team hierarchy in the Vuelta, compared to the Tour.

"In principle, I will do the Vuelta with Tadej but it will perhaps be a little more open. In a season with so many days of competition and with two Grand Tours coming up, I think a podium would be a great result."

However, Almeida then backtracked notably when asked if Pogačar's participation in the Vuelta was definitive, and he echoed Matxin's words by saying it would only be decided after the Tour was over on July 27.

"I can't confirm that. It depends on how he feels after the Tour de France. But regardless of whether he takes part in the Vuelta or not, I think we are in a good position to get a good result [in Spain]. That's the only thing that's certain for now. So both options are good."

"The important thing is that a rider from our team wins. So if it is him, it's fine. We always give priority to whoever is strongest, and he [Pogačar] is the strongest."

An unusual mountain pacing strategy

Looking further ahead, while UAE have a huge roster of potential GC contenders, Almeida said that he had no intention of changing squads when his contract runs out in 18 months' time. Asked if he wanted to extend his time with UAE from 2027 onwards, he answered simply, "Yes. No doubt about that."

A Bola also asked Almeida about his style of racing in the mountains, dropping back to continue at his own pace. The strategy was very much in evidence in the Tour de Suisse, where he won one of the toughest stages of the race, the ascent to Emmetten on stage 8, after losing time early on the final ascent. He also came a narrow second to Oscar Onley on another extremely difficult stage, finishing on the category 1 Santa Maria in Calanca after being 'dropped' early on.

"It depends a bit on the race situation. There are races where the pace is clearly very high, and it's difficult to stay ahead and respond quickly," Almeida explained.

"So I analyse the situation and set the pace I think I can catch up with. And what usually happens is that my opponents end up exploding and running out of legs before the finish line. I catch up with them and try to overtake them.

"It depends a bit on the race situation, the climb…the point we're at in the stage.

"But we always try to do things in the most efficient and best way. It also depends, obviously, on the legs we have, doesn't it?"

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