João Almeida - Bota Lume

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Cookster15

Cookster15

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Looks like he's definitely improved his climbing since last year. In the mix, just not quite as strong on big climbs as those in the podium spots. But his strength is the TT so he should finish this Giro with a bang. Too bad he lost too much time earlier in the race else it could have been very interesting.
 
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Fuente De

Fuente De

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It's spilled milk but if Almeida would have been leader and the team would have paid proper attention to him, i.e. to watch out that he eats his energy gels, then I think both he and Remco would have been far better off. This way Remco dropped out and leaves with the baggage of unfulfilled crazy and unwarranted hopes (lol podium GT after 9 months of non-racing...) and Almeida leaves with the thought he could have podiumed this race. I am a fan of Quickstep but Lefevre failed here.
 
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Volderke

Volderke

Mar 29, 2012
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Fuente De said:
It's spilled milk but if Almeida would have been leader and the team would have paid proper attention to him, i.e. to watch out that he eats his energy gels, then I think both he and Remco would have been far better off. This way Remco dropped out and leaves with the baggage of unfulfilled crazy and unwarranted hopes (lol podium GT after 9 months of non-racing...) and Almeida leaves with the thought he could have podiumed this race. I am a fan of Quickstep but Lefevre failed here.
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A lot of ifs.

one "if" more: If the time he lost in the 4th stage isn't proving to be the difference between 3rd and 4th, all the fuzz about him having to work for Remco, missing out on a podium, is void.
 
roundabout

roundabout

Jun 7, 2010
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Red Rick said:
It's getting a bit silly IMO. Him working for Evenepoel was a no brainer until the Zoncolan, even if in hindsight Almeida was the stronger rider. Shouldn't have been so shite on stage 4.
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It was a no brainer until Evenepoel/Lefevere straight up admitted that the preparation was not enough.

But I guess the shitstorm from Almeida being allowed to do his own race at 4 minutes behind would not have been worth it
 
Fuente De

Fuente De

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Volderke said:
A lot of ifs.

one "if" more: If the time he lost in the 4th stage isn't proving to be the difference between 3rd and 4th, all the fuzz about him having to work for Remco, missing out on a podium, is void.
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No, actually it is only one If. If he is leader make sure he eats his gels. Quick Step neglected him in the face of co-leadership question and everybody is worse off.

It's not the end of the world and Quick Step has to learn to become a GT team but they should learn the lessons from it.
 
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Volderke

Volderke

Mar 29, 2012
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Fuente De said:
No, actually it is only one If. If he is leader make sure he eats his gels. Quick Step neglected him in the face of co-leadership question and everybody is worse off.

It's not the end of the world and Quick Step has to learn to become a GT team but they should learn the lessons from it.
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At least they told him to go to bed early enough every day, so he was rested, and they told him to finish his vegetables every night and not eat too much cookies...

Every GT leader has to know when to eat. Bernal bonked a bit in this Giro, Froome bonked in the Tour, Ullrich ate too many cookies in winter.
Nobody ever blamed Brailsford, for Froome and Bernal forgetting gels, or Team Telekom for Ullrich eating the cookie box every winter.
But now you have a lot of angry Portuguese, because Almeida forgot his gels. Strange world we are living in.
 
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perico

perico

Mar 11, 2009
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bNator said:
You should come to Slovenia. It’s madhouse here. Some of my friends who never followed cycling bought their first road bikes. People who were previously football fans now discuss cycling tactics. One of our biggest national web news site measured that out of 10 most read articles, 8 were related to cycling. During a year where COVID was all people talked about...

So my Portuguese friends, if you are thinking of buying yourselves a new bike - do it now before they get out of stock thanks to Joao:)
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That reminds me of the USA during the Armstrong years. His troubles brought an end to it, but he was front page news in his peak.
 
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groogster

May 18, 2021
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As a conclusion note about João performance at this Giro:

1st week

  • good iTT as expected inside his normal performance
  • Underwhelming performance at stage 4 that took him all the chances for fighting for a win at this Giro at an earlier stage, cracking inside the last 4k and losing around 4 minutes to the GC contenders

2nd week

- started to fight back but his performances were more or less as everybody would expect before the start of this Giro

3nd week

- Above mine and I think everyone's expectations, climbing strongly and going head to head with all the best climbers, just to point out that since stage 16 he gained minutes over all the top5 GC

  • 1:15 over Bernal
  • 0:49 over Caruso
  • 3:50 over Yates
  • 5:37 over Vlasov
  • 4:30 over Martinez

P.S. times taken without bonus Seconds

High expections to see what he can do at "La Vuelta" later this summer
 
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Sciatic

Mar 4, 2011
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perico said:
That reminds me of the USA during the Armstrong years. His troubles brought an end to it, but he was front page news in his peak.
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That is a strange comparison: it was not a “madhouse” here because of Armstrong [ed. Though he was front page news after each Tour win]. Slovenia right now has the top two cyclists in the world; how often aside from Tina, can the country say it has the world’s best athlete in any sport? Whereas how often can the U.S. claim to have to best athlete in any sport (answer: quite often). Armstrong did have a media presence beyond cycling but that was in part because of Livestrong and the silly yellow bracelets.
 
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Fuente De

Fuente De

Sep 27, 2020
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Bonimenier said:
The main person to blame if you didn't eat enough is yourself.
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Wow, you don't say. It doesn't change the fact that Quick Step could have prevented it had they paid attention to him in a proper way and not ride the drama train pre-Giro and all the way through the first week.

Again, Quick Step is not a GT team so it is also a learning experience for them eventually to deal with these type of things, in a proper manner that as Ineos is regularly used to.
 
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Cookster15

Cookster15

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His mistakes at this Giro are easily fixed and part of gaining experience. Almeida's overall performance at this Giro was hugely promising. Massively improved his climbing. There are no guarantees but he showed he is capable of at least podiuming a grand tour if not winning one in the future on the strength of his TT and competitive climbing. He just needs a little more consistency.
 
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groogster

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Cookster15 said:
His mistakes at this Giro are easily fixed and part of gaining experience. Almeida's overall performance at this Giro was hugely promising. Massively improved his climbing. There are no guarantees but he showed he is capable of at least podiuming a grand tour if not winning one in the future on the strength of his TT and competitive climbing. He just needs a little more consistency.
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True but i disagree with the consistency... He was indeed very consistent IMO. Sure in stage 4 he cracked big time, but it was the only stage that he was not consistent. The other stages were very much leveled, at the sterrato stage he was keeping the pace very well but needed to drop to pull Remco, as in the Zoncolan Stage (he would probably finish inside top 10 at both of those stages). Last year at his first giro only cracked big time at the Stelvio Stage so as I see it he is already very consistent being only 22 years old. In 42 stages at GT (2 Giros) he finished 19 stages inside top 10 so I guess that speaks for itself.
 
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Cookster15

Cookster15

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groogster said:
True but i disagree with the consistency... He was indeed very consistent IMO. Sure in stage 4 he cracked big time, but it was the only stage that he was not consistent. The other stages were very much leveled, at the starrato stage he was keeping the pace very well but needed to drop to pull Remco, as in the Zoncolan Stage (he would probably finish inside top 10 at both of those stages). Last year at his first giro only cracked big time at the Stelvio Stage so ass I see it he is already very consistent being only 22 years old. In 42 stages at GT (2 Giros) he finished 19 stages inside top 10 so I guess that speaks for itself.
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Stage 4 is what I was thinking about when I posted. Lost over 4 minutes which would have put him on the podium ahead of Yates. I think he will learn from the experience he has shown that he has already worked hard since 2020.
 
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groogster

May 18, 2021
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Cookster15 said:
Stage 4 is what I was thinking about when I posted. Lost over 4 minutes which would have put him on the podium ahead of Yates. I think he will learn from the experience he has shown that he has already worked hard since 2020.
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One of the big diferences between being able to win a GT or to almost win one will always be the capability of minimizing losses in a bad day, that at some point in a GT all of the riders will eventually have. For instance at this year Giro besides Caruso all of the top10 contenders had bad days but João on his lost to much time
 
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ExperienPT

ExperienPT

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What is the best team for JA?
I think EF with Guerreiro would be pretty cool, but certainly no dling dling to pay his hyped contract so...

Bora? UAE? Bahrain?

I would like to see him at Bahrain, Landa for no heavy ITT GTs and Almeida for the heavy ones.
 
ExperienPT

ExperienPT

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Screenshot-20210601-191713-Facebook-1-2.jpg


Amazing 3rd week
 
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