The UAE closes its party in style: stage for Almeida and General de Yates

Published on: 16/06/2024

The UAE closes its party in style: stage for Almeida and General de Yates

The Tour of Switzerland 2024 will be remembered as the great feast of the UAE, as the race in which the UAE team performed and cancelled at will. For the fourth day in a row, in the eighth and final stage of the test, João Almeida and Adam Yates took the first two places of the day, leaving the rest far behind. In addition, the loot is widely distributed: two stages of victory for each The Portuguese are testing for the last time this Sunday and the British are testing overall. The coup of power is very remarkable considering that, in 13 days, both Yates and Almeida will be in Florence for the start of the Tour de France, where they will be, along with Juan Ayuso, two of the fundamental figures who will help Tadej Pogacar attack the yellow jersey.

The highlight of this Sunday’s time trial, 15.7 km and 865 meters of altitude finishing in Villars-sur-Olonne, was the battle for the general classification between an Almeida and a Yates, who had ups and downs during the last days. The advantage went to the British, who were 31 seconds ahead of their teammate, Adam took the pressure off himself, though. “I personally think he will take about a minute off me in the time trial. In recent days, he has shown how strong he is when he sets his own pace, which is crazy. When he is alone in the time trial, I think he will fly,” predicted the man from Bari, who finished third in last year’s Tour de France, after Saturday’s day in which Almeida passed him for the win at the finish line.

Yates was partially correct in his prediction: Almeida certainly took off and won the stage (33:23.87), but the difference between the two was never minutes. The man from the United Kingdom, who lost seven seconds to his companion during the flat section at the beginning, mimicked João’s climb, and the nine seconds of loss (33:32.12) were enough for Yates, at the age of 31, to take the lead. The eighth general of his life. He celebrated at the finish line, exhausted and lying on the ground with his family, including his dog Zoe. Two stage victories (fifth and seventh) and the yellow jersey, while Almeida does not leave Switzerland empty-handed either: another two partial victories (sixth and eighth) and a second place on the podium.

In the battle to be first among mortals, that is, third, the Dane Mattias Skjelmose won, finishing third in the final time trial, 21 seconds behind Almeida, and third overall with almost a minute’s lead over Egan Bernal, who fell (1:30 behind Almeida). Pelayo Sanchez, seventh at 1:21, was the best Spaniard of the day and finished 11th in the general category. The best national sprinter was Enric Mas in seventh place, five minutes behind Yates After a 12th place in the time trial.

Yates and Almeida will immediately go into ‘Tour de France mode’ after their party in Switzerland. The people of UAE will meet their leader, A Tadej Pogacar preparing for the Grande Boucle at Isola 2000And the rest of the runners who will support the Slovenian (Juan Ayuso, Nils Politt, Pavel Sivkov, Marc Soler and Tim Wellens), who will focus on finalising details about the most important race of the year. An Emirati team of ‘dream team’, with lessons learned from previous years and, in sight, some amiable Pogacars (if they can be considered amiable rather than top level stars) will arrive in Florence on June 29 with their feet in great shape. For the moment, in Switzerland, optimism is sky high about what the UAE can offer.

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