{"id":176729,"date":"2025-10-03T05:10:04","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T05:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/176729\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T05:10:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T05:10:04","slug":"joao-almeida-in-surprise-last-minute-withdrawal-from-european-championships-time-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/176729\/","title":{"rendered":"Jo\u00e3o Almeida in surprise last-minute withdrawal from European Championships time trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Portuguese rider Jo\u00e3o Almeida<\/a> was a no-show at the start line of Tuesday\u2019s individual time trial at the 2025 European Championships<\/a> in France, despite having been slated to return to racing after a brief break following his runner-up finish at the Vuelta a Espana.<\/p>\n

Almeida had been scheduled to roll down the ramp at 15:05 for the 24-kilometre effort, but failed to appear, with no official explanation provided as of yet. His absence came as a surprise, particularly after expressing cautious optimism in the lead-up to the race.<\/p>\n

In a pre-race interview with his home language media outlet A BOLA<\/a>, the 27-year-old acknowledged he wasn\u2019t expecting a standout performance, citing the nature of the course and his current condition. \u201cI don\u2019t expect good feelings, but I hope I\u2019m wrong,\u201d Almeida admitted. \u201cThe competition is very high, all the best European time trial specialists will be competing. And having seen the course today, I don\u2019t think it favours me.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s course profile featured a largely flat layout with a rolling character \u2014 conditions Almeida conceded weren\u2019t suited to his strengths. \u201cHonestly, it\u2019s a lot less tough than I thought it would be. There\u2019s also going to be a lot of wind, which doesn\u2019t suit me either, as I\u2019m lighter than the specialists.\u201d<\/p>\n

The route concluded with a 2-kilometre drag to the finish \u2014 an uphill stretch that might have favoured Almeida in better shape \u2014 but even that, he believed, wouldn\u2019t be decisive. \u201cI thought this climb would be tougher, but in reality it\u2019s just a little top. It will take its toll on everyone and make slight differences. However, the previous kilometres will decide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following a few weeks away from competition, Almeida had framed the time trial as an opportunity to sharpen his form ahead of Sunday\u2019s road race, where he remains part of Portugal\u2019s line-up. \u201cI hope my engine opens up to the maximum tomorrow and from then on I\u2019ll find myself with new sensations. We\u2019ll have a few days to train a bit too.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Almeida’s withdrawal, veteran Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) was left as the sole representative of the Portuguese national team in the time trial discipline. As fans await word on what prompted the sudden DNS (Did Not Start), attention now shifts to the weekend, where Almeida is still expected to feature in the road race \u2014 an event likely to play more to his abilities and ambitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Portuguese rider Jo\u00e3o Almeida was a no-show at the start line of Tuesday\u2019s individual time trial at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-176729","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}