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João Almeida - Bota Lume

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Almeida won't even be team leader at the 2023 Vuelta a Espana!

Ayuso is 2nd fiddle at UAE. Frankly, we saw why at this Giro d'Italia.

First Portuguese Grand Tour podium since Agostinho is a nice archivement. But Almeida misses the punch to attack in order to win a Grand Tour.
You're missing some logic in your "point". In last year's Vuelta Almeida was returning from covid and had no special shape. Now he has podium the Giro, made a clear step with the past and affirmed himself as second to none but Pogacar as a GT rider: I rate the Giro higher than the Vuelta but this Giro is more recent and João has had very good results.
Jumping to conclusions about team rankings in August is a bit nonsense.
 
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What @tobydawq said makes sense for noob. Almeida wants sole leadership of a GT. Pog is in the team. Riding TdF not then the easiest choice due to conflicting schedules. Ayuso is Spanish so likely want vuelta.

I think Almeida could potentially get stuck at giro vuelta combo until he gets a GT win. So he needs to win giro first lol.

Or if Pog is seriously injured.
 
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What @tobydawq said makes sense for noob. Almeida wants sole leadership of a GT. Pog is in the team. Riding TdF not then the easiest choice due to conflicting schedules. Ayuso is Spanish so likely want vuelta.

I think Almeida could potentially get stuck at giro vuelta combo until he gets a GT win. So he needs to win giro first lol.

Or if Pog is seriously injured.
I don't think Almeida wants sole leadership per se. But he wants some leadership, which he's not getting at the Tour where it's all for Pogacar.
 
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You're missing some logic in your "point". In last year's Vuelta Almeida was returning from covid and had no special shape. Now he has podium the Giro, made a clear step with the past and affirmed himself as second to none but Pogacar as a GT rider: I rate the Giro higher than the Vuelta but this Giro is more recent and João has had very good results.
Jumping to conclusions about team rankings in August is a bit nonsense.
Huh!? Almeida had his season peak this May. While Ayuso, if healthy again which the upcoming Tour de Suisse should indicate, is going to have his season peak at the Vuelta a Espana where he arrives fresh as daisy. There's no question Almeida ends up being a domestique in September as long as Ayuso stays healthy.

Almeida ended up last of the 3 weak main-favorites remaining. From 4th on it gets pretty mediocre. Even if I feel sorry to say that about Pinot, because for him to get back to this level is a success. Roglic, apart from Lussari, looked nowhere near his 2021 Vuelta a Espana shape. Still has beaten Almeida.
 
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Huh!? Almeida had his season peak this May. While Ayuso, if healthy again which the upcoming Tour de Suisse should indicate, is going to have his season peak at the Vuelta a Espana where he arrives fresh as daisy. There's no question Almeida ends up being a domestique in September as long as Ayuso stays healthy.

Almeida ended up last of the 3 weak main-favorites remaining. From 4th on it gets pretty mediocre. Even if I feel sorry to say that about Pinot, because for him to get back to this level is a success. Roglic, apart from Lussari, looked nowhere near his 2021 Vuelta a Espana shape. Still has beaten Almeida.
That's a bit more clear, but you sounded like you're saying that Almeida is 2nd fiddle therefore he won't be a team leader in Vuelta. I think those were pretty shaky assumptions. Maybe he can peak again and can be there to see where those weeks point at and ends up helping Ayuso like he already did or maybe it's the other way around.

Well, a podim is important. Ayuso perhaps podium because of Roglic's crash...in the end the field's depth is about who is left.
 
Almeida won't even be team leader at the 2023 Vuelta a Espana!

Ayuso is 2nd fiddle at UAE. Frankly, we saw why at this Giro d'Italia.

First Portuguese Grand Tour podium since Agostinho is a nice archivement. But Almeida misses the punch to attack in order to win a Grand Tour.

This. Bondone was a great stage for him but once again he proved short in steep and multi-col stages. I would say that his improvement from 3rd week of 2021 Giro to 2023 Giro is not as big as the results makes it appear. Two years ago I believe he could have podiumed already if not for losing time in stages where it shouldn't have happened during the first half of the race. This result seems, for me, the bare minimum acceptable for his race to not be considered a failure even going by his pre-race interviews where he was kind of comparing himself to Remco and Roglic.

I had already predicted back in 2021 that going to UAE was a bad move if he wanted to have a clear path to team leadership in GTs. Pogacar was already there and Ayuso was already a big prospect who right now appears to have a higher ceiling than Joao in terms of his GT contender potential. And he's not in the first tier of GC riders nowadays, but deserves more than leadership in Giro or Vuelta while he is on his prime.

Bora was, of the teams rumoured back then, a much better option for him.
 
This. Bondone was a great stage for him but once again he proved short in steep and multi-col stages. I would say that his improvement from 3rd week of 2021 Giro to 2023 Giro is not as big as the results makes it appear. Two years ago I believe he could have podiumed already if not for losing time in stages where it shouldn't have happened during the first half of the race. This result seems, for me, the bare minimum acceptable for his race to not be considered a failure even going by his pre-race interviews where he was kind of comparing himself to Remco and Roglic.

I had already predicted back in 2021 that going to UAE was a bad move if he wanted to have a clear path to team leadership in GTs. Pogacar was already there and Ayuso was already a big prospect who right now appears to have a higher ceiling than Joao in terms of his GT contender potential. And he's not in the first tier of GC riders nowadays, but deserves more than leadership in Giro or Vuelta while he is on his prime.

Bora was, of the teams rumoured back then, a much better option for him.
Sorry but it's quite obvious that Almeida upped a step towards his development so leaving QS was at least a won bet. Having won a stage is also a big argument on this and his previous levels that contributes to him having GT status on UAE after Pogacar.
 
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This. Bondone was a great stage for him but once again he proved short in steep and multi-col stages. I would say that his improvement from 3rd week of 2021 Giro to 2023 Giro is not as big as the results makes it appear. Two years ago I believe he could have podiumed already if not for losing time in stages where it shouldn't have happened during the first half of the race. This result seems, for me, the bare minimum acceptable for his race to not be considered a failure even going by his pre-race interviews where he was kind of comparing himself to Remco and Roglic.

I had already predicted back in 2021 that going to UAE was a bad move if he wanted to have a clear path to team leadership in GTs. Pogacar was already there and Ayuso was already a big prospect who right now appears to have a higher ceiling than Joao in terms of his GT contender potential. And he's not in the first tier of GC riders nowadays, but deserves more than leadership in Giro or Vuelta while he is on his prime.

Bora was, of the teams rumoured back then, a much better option for him.
I somewhat agree with the comparison to 2021. Without the hunger knock bonk he would've been close to podium.

His confidence vs anxiety is a bit curious to me lol. I haphazard his matter of fact talking style makes him seem arrogant while he's oftentimes just stating literal facts 😁
 
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Is this a pun I'm not getting?
He very likely won't even be the most established GT rider to debut in that specific Tour.

This was the fifth time he rode a Grand Tour. His worst result was 6th (one second from 5th), and the one he DNF'ed, he was 4th with just a few stages to go.

He may podium this year's Vuelta. And he probably isn't riding the Tour the next couple of years, either.
 
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He could be a Heras type who can win a Vuelta or Giro but is top mountain dom in the Tour. I'd take him to the Tour sooner rather than later as 2nd option. He can do Vuelta after that (or Giro before, but more difficult to recover to be in top shape for Tour.

It's always difficult to predict the Vuelta until after the Tour, unless you have an Ayuso or Remco or C. Rod (assumption) who clearly say they're peaking for it. Need to see who shows up...a fresh Almeida could be both a weapon for Ayuso and a threat for GC himself.
 
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This was the fifth time he rode a Grand Tour. His worst result was 6th (one second from 5th), and the one he DNF'ed, he was 4th with just a few stages to go.

He may podium this year's Vuelta. And he probably isn't riding the Tour the next couple of years, either.
Fausto Coppi won the Giro three times before his debut at the Tour.
And there are many other examples (the aforementioned Hindley and Remco the most recent).
 
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Almeida won't even be team leader at the 2023 Vuelta a Espana!

Ayuso is 2nd fiddle at UAE. Frankly, we saw why at this Giro d'Italia.

First Portuguese Grand Tour podium since Agostinho is a nice archivement. But Almeida misses the punch to attack in order to win a Grand Tour.
He will be co leader with Ayuso at La Vuelta so wouldn’t be much of a surprise to see him podium again.
It’s obvious for everyone (at UAE) that atm only Pogacar is above Almeida in the hierarchy.
Ayuso (who has a greater ceiling) isn’t above Almeida, maybe in the future he will but not as we speak.
I Know for a fact that Almeida at least in this season had the calendar definition right after Pogacar and before Ayuso and Yates. If it will stay like that for next season nobody knows.
They will continue to work around Almeida explosiveness according to San Millan who believes he can win a GT in the future. If San Millan believes it I would rather take his words over any other “experts” in the subject.
 
Huh!? Almeida had his season peak this May. While Ayuso, if healthy again which the upcoming Tour de Suisse should indicate, is going to have his season peak at the Vuelta a Espana where he arrives fresh as daisy. There's no question Almeida ends up being a domestique in September as long as Ayuso stays healthy.

Almeida ended up last of the 3 weak main-favorites remaining. From 4th on it gets pretty mediocre. Even if I feel sorry to say that about Pinot, because for him to get back to this level is a success. Roglic, apart from Lussari, looked nowhere near his 2021 Vuelta a Espana shape. Still has beaten Almeida.
You are wrong my friend, Almeida won’t do domestique work for Ayuso as long as he stay within striking distance for the top 3. If he looses big time in GC then yes he will work for Ayuso, but we can say the same if it’s the other way around, if Ayuso looses big time and Almeida is up in the GC he will also be called to domestique dutties for Almeida.
At this Giro Geraint Thomas and Tao were both leaders at Ineos and as always it will be the road that will make the decisions about who’s working for whom.
 

Interesting interview about almeida and other portuguese talents emerging, specially from bairrada.

Like i said about morgado, his former coach says that his values are very superior to almeida's values.
I’m trying to get the current and latest Vo2 max and watts per Kilo of António Morgado. I will post it when and if I get those results but yes, everyone that worked with Morgado say that he is the greatest talent ever of Portuguese cycling.
He just came from a knee injury and finished Orlen Nations with a stage win and 6th GC but because he had a mechanical in stage 4 that made him lose 51 seconds, without that he would have won the GC by 4 seconds.
 

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