Tadej Pogačar will most likely be without one of his super domestiques for this year's Tour de France, with João Almeida telling Portuguese media that while he has recovered from the illness which forced him to cancel his Giro d'Italia participation, he "wouldn't be ready to do the Tour".
Almeida is racing for the first time since March from this Sunday at the Tour-Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, where he will reboot his season and support Isaac del Toro, but he isn't using it as a build-up to the Tour de France.
Pogačar had the luxury support of Almeida at the 2024 Tour and half of last year's race, with the Portuguese rider finishing fourth overall as a domestique at the former, as his Slovenian leader claimed the yellow jersey. He's seemingly ruled out any chance of that repeating.
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"[Riding the Tour] depended solely on my progress and how I would react over time. Personally, I feel I wouldn't be ready to do a Tour de France. There are many rough edges to smooth out to be at the level of a Tour; it's a very demanding race," said Almeida to Portuguese news agency Lusa, as reported by O Jogo.
"Regardless of whether you're going to achieve a result or to work hard, you have to be in your best shape, because otherwise it's not possible to achieve much."
With that in mind, it's no surprise to see him not pushing for a maximum result at the renamed Critérium du Dauphiné. Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) will be the favourite, but Del Toro and former UAE teammate Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) will lead the challenge.
"I don't want to go there aiming for any particular result, nor am I fighting for the race. I'm going there to try and help my teammates as best I can, see how I feel, and try to train for the race," said Almeida.
"We know it's difficult because it's a very demanding race, with many climbs, it's a very tough course."
Almeida will now switch his focus over to leading UAE at the Vuelta a España, where he was runner-up to Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) last season, insisting that it is the red jersey he will be after: "Obviously, I know that the opponents are very strong, but personally, a top 3 or a top 5 is no longer a result that leaves me satisfied and motivated."
He also confirmed the rest of his 2026 calendar: Clásica San Sebastián, Vuelta a Burgos, Vuelta a España, and the Road World Championships in Canada.
The Portuguese rider also gave some insight into his recovery from the illness, which hampered him after the Volta a Catalunya, and why skipping the Giro was the only option.
"Right after Catalunya, I had to rest to recover from the race and then I started training little by little. I didn't feel too bad, but I didn't feel excellent," said Almeida.
"And then there's always that pressure of having to train because I have the Giro. I even did altitude training, but my blood tests weren't improving. After a long period in which I neither trained nor rested, it wasn't worth doing any races, [so not doing the Giro] was very natural.
"I was always realistic and knew I wasn't doing well, so there wasn't much I could do. I wasn't going to do much there anyway, it was better to give another teammate the opportunity to succeed and try to get good results, which is what happened."
While still not exactly clear what it was that forced him out of the races for all of April and May, Almeida seems to be back on track.
"I took a break to rest before the Giro and I've been training for about three or four weeks now. The training has been going well, I've been feeling good," he said.
"I've finally recovered, but I don't know exactly what I had. In the tests, I had quite a few altered values, but we never really understood the main cause for those alterations."
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