{"id":110485,"date":"2025-08-31T21:44:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T21:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/110485\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T21:44:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T21:44:17","slug":"almeida-wonders-where-his-team-was-ciccone-wonders-what-happened-to-his-legs-in-vuelta-reversal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/110485\/","title":{"rendered":"Almeida Wonders Where His Team Was , Ciccone Wonders What Happened to His Legs in Vuelta Reversal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almeida was left stranded without UAE teammates after Vingegaard’s attack: ‘No one was really there.’<\/p>\n

\"Almeida\"<\/p>\n

Almeida missed the move and had to chase with Pidcock on his wheel. (Photo: Tim de Waele\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Updated August 31, 2025 01:32PM<\/p>\n

VALDEZCARAY, Spain (Velo) \u2014 Jo\u00e3o Almeida rued a missed chance and Giulio Ciccone admitted a costly miscalculation after both came up short in Sunday\u2019s explosive stage 9 at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a.<\/p>\n

Almeida salvaged third place on the sodden summit at Valdezcaray, but the Portuguese contender left the finish shaking his head at what might have been.<\/p>\n

The UAE Emirates-XRG star missed the winning acceleration from Jonas Vingegaard and was forced to chase with Tom Pidcock, who took far fewer pulls and pipped him in the sprint for second.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had a factor of surprise and we were not expecting it. I was in a good position and they went really hard,\u201d Almeida said. \u201cIn the end, I could not close the gap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almeida said he expected he could have stayed with Vingegaard, but was caught out when Visma-Lease a Bike, led by a perfect setup from Matteo Jorgenson and Sepp Kuss, gapped everyone out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not so steep, so I think I could go with him. We\u2019ll never know,\u201d Almeida said.<\/p>\n

\u2018I missed my teammates today\u2019
\n\"AlmeidaPidcock rode Almeida\u2019s wheel much of the climb and then pipped him for second place. (Photo: Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Even more worrying for Almeida was that none of his UAE Emirates-XRG teammates were anywhere to be seen.<\/p>\n

That fact is even more troubling considering that the relatively moderate climb to Valdezcaray is nothing compared to the giants looming in northern Spain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could see they were on their limit, so they couldn\u2019t do much,\u201d Almeida said. \u201cI missed a bit of my teammates today, no one was really there. It is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almeida remains the top GC threat to Vingegaard, but he gave up some valuable seconds to the Dane.<\/p>\n

That frustration poured out when Almeida yelled at fellow chaser Pidcock to \u201cgrow some balls\u201d midway up the climb.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ciccone: \u2018Jonas was too fast for me\u2019
\n\"Ciccone\"Ciccone tried to follow Vingegaard but later regretted it. (Photo: Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

For Ciccone, the regrets were more painful.<\/p>\n

The Italian was the only rider to initially follow Vingegaard\u2019s brutal acceleration, but the Lidl-Trek climber paid dearly for the gamble.<\/p>\n

His legs cracked halfway up the climb, and he faded to seventh at 1:46. He also slipped two places to sixth overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just went too fast for me,\u201d Ciccone said at the line. \u201cI did my best and it was too fast and maybe it was a mistake to follow him, maybe it was better to pace more at the bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ciccone had started the day quietly confident and Lidl-Trek put its men on the front to chase down the five-rider breakaway going into the final climb.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feeling was good and I was confident to try for this stage. I tried this, sometimes it\u2019s good, sometimes it\u2019s less,\u201d the Italian said.<\/p>\n

Lidl-Trek is still hunting for its first stage win of this Vuelta, and after Mads Pedersen missed a few chances in the sprints, Ciccone hopes to have another day before this Vuelta is over.<\/p>\n

\u201cJonas was super strong and for sure we try again,\u201d Ciccone said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almeida was left stranded without UAE teammates after Vingegaard’s attack: ‘No one was really there.’ Almeida missed the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,54263,82,62506,62507,57421,62508,62509,54267],"class_list":{"0":"post-110485","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-parent_category-road","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tag-giulio-ciccone","14":"tag-tag-joao-almeida","15":"tag-tag-jonas-vingegaard","16":"tag-tag-lidl-trek","17":"tag-tag-uae-emirates","18":"tag-type-article"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}