It's not been an easy year at all for João Almeida, but he's still determined to keep pushing on at the Vuelta a España, a race where he has taken some of his biggest successes in the past and where despite the setbacks, there may yet be an opportunity for the Portuguese star in the final week.
He was runner-up overall and winner on the Angliru in the Vuelta last year, as well as being the most successful week-long stage racer of 2025. This season illness and injuries have taken a severe toll on his performances.
Finally back in a Grand Tour at the Vuelta a España, Almeida and UAE Team Emirates-XRG suffered the loss of race leader and top overall favourite Tadej Pogačar at the end of the first week. Since then, Almeida and his teammates have been on the hunt for stage wins.
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Almeida managed to get into a break on stage 14 alongside two of his three remaining teammates, Ivo Oliveira and Kevin Vermaerke, and UAE are showing a very strong hand despite their major setbacks all round in the Vuelta. At the same time, the increase in sustained high temperatures in the Vuelta has seen the race forced to agree to its first-ever reduction of the length of a stage, whilst the extreme heat is causing concern for all the riders, including Almeida.
"I think the heat is a bit limiting because we are reaching the limit of the human body, which is a bit dangerous," Almeida told Cyclingnews at the sunbaked start of stage 15, but only after the rider had politely requested he could move into the shade for the interview.
"It's not easy to explain, but it's kind of part of our preparation to do heat training, and so you can ride in these conditions. You ride easy, it's no problem and get plenty of water and refresh yourself.
"But it's not easy to race for us, it's different so it can definitely be dangerous. We need to look out for each other."
In his own specific case, Almeida says that contrary to what people think, which is that being Portuguese, he should be OK in the heat. However, "I always struggle a lot with it.
"For me it's hard and it affects me a lot. I think it's the same for everybody but some guys are better than others. And it's one of those things where you really can't make any mistakes, otherwise you're in big trouble."
More than a specific heat 'spike' affecting the riders, Almeida says, he thinks the biggest challenge is handling repeated exposure to high temperatures, over several stages, which has a cumulative effect.
"You saw how it affected the guys yesterday, [Saturday] but it's also day after day. The dehydration and the heat - yeah, it's no joke."
Despite the adverse conditions, it says a lot about Almeida's determination that he is still pushing hard to get into breaks and he succeeded on stage 14.
"I'm really trying, I spent a lot to be in that breakaway," he reveals, in what is perhaps the beginning of a light at the end of the tunnel after an extraordinarily difficult year.
"I had a virus in March and I never really recovered very well. I kept training and insisting we were getting my shape back, which of course wouldn't come back. And then things just got worse and worse.
"I crashed in Poland [the Tour de Pologne - Ed.] and then I was sick as well so i spent four days off the bike, so it was far from ideal. But I think my condition is improving here, within the limits I have, of course bacause miracles don't really happen from one day to the other.
"So we keep trying. We keep doing our best. That's everything I can do."
Final week of Vuelta
As might be expected in a rider with podium finishes in the Giro and Vuelta as well as a fourth place in the Tour, Almeida is also following the GC battle with interest. But for all current leader Enric Mas (Movistar) has a two-minute advantage on Roglič, Almeida is very doubtful that the Slovenian has said his last word.
"The last two stages and the TT [on Thursday's stage 18] are going to make big gaps. I think so far nothing is really decided. Enric is looking really good, but it's all about the TT right?" Almeida asks rhetorically.
"I think everything is very open and Primož can still definitely win. I think his form is growing in this Vuelta and I would say Felix Gall [Decathlon CMA CGM] also looks really good. Of course, normally he [Gall] will have big problems in the TT, right?"
All round, as Almeida says, this should be a very dramatic struggle for the overall battle in the GC, something he thinks will be very entertaining. Or, as he concludes with a grin, "so I think it's going to be great to watch on TV".
In the meantime and a long way away from the GC battle, he's got a stage win to try and capture before next Sunday in Granada.
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