‘Life is based on ifs’ – João Almeida left wondering at Vuelta a España after gaining 10 seconds on leader Jonas Vingegaard on shortened time trial course

João Almeida could be forgiven for cursing his bad luck in the Vuelta a España on Thursday as the Portuguese racer pulled back 11 seconds on overall leader Jonas Vingegaard in the race’s third week time trial, but was left wondering if it could have been a whole lot more.

Fears about race security after multiple pro-Palestine protests had caused the partial suspension of two stages meant the Valladolid time trial route was reduced from its original distance of 27.2 kilometres to just 12.2 kilometres.

Despite such a short distance and not being an out-and-out time trial specialist, Almeida nonetheless managed to turn in an excellent third place behind stage winner Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), allowing him to cut Vingegaard’s overall advantage to just 40 seconds.

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Had the time trial been the full distance, it might have been a significantly bigger dent in Vingegaard’s advantage. The Visma-Lease a Bike leader himself said he was relieved that he had limited the damage inflicted by Almeida, and that “such a flat, long course would have favoured riders like João.”

Instead, Almeida was only able to claw back a relatively small amount of time, meaning the entire Vuelta a España will now come down to the crunch ascent of Bola del Mundo – assuming security reasons do not lead to further alterations in the course between now and Saturday.

“I think I did as best I could; it’s not like it was an effort that really suits me a lot,” Almeida said afterwards. “It’s a pity it wasn’t 27 kilometres, but it is what it is.”

Almeida, like Vingegaard, took some important risks on the very technical opening four kilometres, making the most of the good weather and dry roads to slam his bike through the series of bends at top speed.

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However, it was on the four-kilometre closing straight run to the finish where Almeida was really able to use his heavy build to his advantage against the lighter Vingegaard, opening up a gap of nearly 11 seconds by the time he powered across the line.

The million-dollar question, of course, is what Almeida could have done on a longer course, but as he put it himself afterwards, there was little sense in speculating on what might have happened.

“We’ll never know, right?” he asked rhetorically. “I mean, life is based on ifs, so I can’t think too much about it. We must still be pretty satisfied with the outcome. I felt quite strong.”

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Almeida remains very close to the maillot rojo of race leader, and that’s almost certainly a scenario he would have signed for before the Vuelta began nearly three weeks ago in Turin.

Indeed, after Wednesday’s ascent to El Morredero that saw him cede a little time to Vingegaard, following the time trial, he remains very much in the game for an all-out assault at the Bola del Mundo.

“I’ve got the same confidence as first day, so we’ll do the best we can,” he said. “Some days are good, some days are bad. You just need to be focussed, do everything you can do, and just control what you can.

“It’s the same as everything – we’re cyclists and we adapt quite well to any scenario. So it’s good. I still think there’s still a race.”

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