Today his positioning and descending took him out of race dispute again... So bad. He really needs special and intense training. The amount of wasted energy on successive final climbs on a GT by going alone and exposed the majority of time is mind blowing (and leg painfull).
He doesn't react to sudden accelerations, because doing exactly that is what costs the most energy and hampers efficiency. That means as soon the race explodes, he gets dropped regardless of his position. I don't understand why everybody keeps insisting he should be better placed and react to those accelerations. Fighting for position and responding to attacks come at a cost, and Joao has become a master at pacing himself and conserving energy. Since he isn't going to respond to the attacks and accelerations, it also makes little sense in wasting energy fighting for position. On a 20km climb, it is only a 20 meter disadvantage, meaning negligible.
Others go in the red too much too often, which in the long run only hurts them. As soon as you go in the red by reacting to attacks, you will choke yourself and hurt your output going further. Imagine doing a 10km run, and at one point you have to put in a 100 meter all-out sprint. What is the best point to do that? At the start, or before the finish? If you do it at the start, you will need to do those 9.900 meters while recovering from the all out sprint, hurting your output for the entire duration of the effort. While if you do it before the finish, you can run those 9.900 meters at the most optimal pace and efficiency. So even if you might lose a few seconds in the 100 meter all out sprint at the end compared to at the start, you will win a lot more over the 9.900 meters that way. It's the same exact thing with Joao. He knows he isn't the same calibre talent as the absolute best currently, but he's also not been at his very best this year. So he has to be pragmatic and smart. And that's exactly what he's doing.