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João Almeida - Bota Lume

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Except it's much more down to strategy than tenacity.
Riding 25 meters behind a group of rivals for virtually an entire climb in the Giro has to be about the dumbest strategy one can think of, as you could save energy sitting in last wheel. That's tenacity. Having to leave your designated leader (in 2020) to fend for his own doesn't seem like the best strategy either, because you never know what could happen and you might not get back to help out.

He is a master of pacing himself though and he does know when it's better not to follow and chose his own pace, so there is definitely a large portion of strategy involved as well, as you say. But i believe that is something he has found out from experience these past 2 seasons.
 
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I'd say he seems to know himself extremely well as a rider. Might also be why he hardly ever crashes? The latter is still just as fascinating to me considering the level he's at.

I'd challenge anyone to find someone at his level that has hardly even gotten a scratch for two years.
Didn't he crash in San Sebastian? Or was that fake news?
He also crashed in the Giro 2020 which is less than 2 years ago.
 
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We will have to wait for the final list of participants of the Vuelta, to know whether Almeida is one of the candidates for final victory.

If Roglic participates, he can either ride a colorless Vuelta... or just regain good form during the second half of the race. Then he just might be a favorite.

If Van Wilders is spared setbacks, I also see him finishing close. Because his shape is also increasing.
 
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We will have to wait for the final list of participants of the Vuelta, to know whether Almeida is one of the candidates for final victory.

If Roglic participates, he can either ride a colorless Vuelta... or just regain good form during the second half of the race. Then he just might be a favorite.

If Van Wilders is spared setbacks, I also see him finishing close. Because his shape is also increasing.
My guess is Roglic won't even ride if they don't think he's in good form.
 
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We will have to wait for the final list of participants of the Vuelta, to know whether Almeida is one of the candidates for final victory.

If Roglic participates, he can either ride a colorless Vuelta... or just regain good form during the second half of the race. Then he just might be a favorite.

If Van Wilders is spared setbacks, I also see him finishing close. Because his shape is also increasing.
Depends what you mean by ''finishing close''. Ilan has not done a GT yet, unless you count 3 hours of stage 1 of the Vuelta back in 2020. He has had FAR too few racing days over the past 3 seasons for him to make that kind of progress, not to mention him having been completely mismanaged at DSM. This season again too few high intensity efforts and racedays, too many times he had to start over after crashes and illness. The good part is that he will be fresh at the Vuelta. I think he might be able to clip the top 10 if everything goes to plan, unless he has to do too much work for Evenepoel. But i think it's unfair to expect more of him. In a perfect world they can support each other in the harder stages and get Remco on the podium and Ilan in the top 10. But either or both could also very well drop 20 spots in GC from that projection.
 
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We will have to wait for the final list of participants of the Vuelta, to know whether Almeida is one of the candidates for final victory.

If Roglic participates, he can either ride a colorless Vuelta... or just regain good form during the second half of the race. Then he just might be a favorite.

If Van Wilders is spared setbacks, I also see him finishing close. Because his shape is also increasing.
No we wont, Almeida is a serious contender whether Roglic rides or not
 
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No we wont, Almeida is a serious contender whether Roglic rides or not
Almeida will be in a small group of GC riders that can win La Vuelta if he’s at his best form. But as always 3 weeks is a lot to maintain good form and not having a bad day. Untill now Almeida always had at least a bad day that put him out of contention for winning GC and then there’s some tactical positioning problems that he haven’t yet overcome imo (stage 6 at Catalunya always come to my mind he was the strongest rider at the race and yet lost it due to bad positioning and lack of concentration)
 
Almeida will be in a small group of GC riders that can win La Vuelta if he’s at his best form. But as always 3 weeks is a lot to maintain good form and not having a bad day. Untill now Almeida always had at least a bad day that put him out of contention for winning GC and then there’s some tactical positioning problems that he haven’t yet overcome imo (stage 6 at Catalunya always come to my mind he was the strongest rider at the race and yet lost it due to bad positioning and lack of concentration)
For me he's the #1 "favorite" for a top 5 spot but like 5th favorite for the win.
 
Has he lost weight btw? Either that or the UAE jersey fools the eyes the way it is designed. He looks smaller, also face looks older.

(Similar to Vingegaard where the loss of fat in the face makes them look immediately older.)
You should take a look at photo's of Arensman when he was at SEG, then with the Sunweb kit, and how he looks now. He's gone from cute kid to full terminator in 2 years.
 
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I am starting to appreciate how hard it might be being Almeida domestique.

He has problems with positioning so you need to babysit him and he might get lost any second if he feels the tempo is even the slightest too high.

It has to be a constant checking, and no use to launch him either as he isn't explosive.

Just some ramling :D
 
I am starting to appreciate how hard it might be being Almeida domestique.

He has problems with positioning so you need to babysit him and he might get lost any second if he feels the tempo is even the slightest too high.

It has to be a constant checking, and no use to launch him either as he isn't explosive.

Just some ramling :D

The positioning and tactical reading of the race at any given time, will come with experience (he's only in his 3rd year at WT) so I wouldn't be so worried with that in the long term.
As far as explosiveness, he has it but not in terms of being able to change pace all the time because he's clearly a diesel climber, he starts to remind me of Indurain, very lookalike him indeed.
Let's see where it ends but IMO potentially very capable of winning a GT in the future. Let me put it in other words, if he ends his career without a GT win wouldn't surprise me, if he eventually wins one also wouldn't surprise me.
 
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The positioning and tactical reading of the race at any given time, will come with experience (he's only in his 3rd year at WT) so I wouldn't be so worried with that in the long term.
As far as explosiveness, he has it but not in terms of being able to change pace all the time because he's clearly a diesel climber, he starts to remind me of Indurain, very lookalike him indeed.
Let's see where it ends but IMO potentially very capable of winning a GT in the future. Let me put it in other words, if he ends his career without a GT win wouldn't surprise me, if he eventually wins one also wouldn't surprise me.
I think the fact that I started liking Almeida after Stelvio and Vingegaard the second I saw him on Angliru has something to do with how I see Almeida and positioning. Vingegaard is just so good at it even before he won TdF. So my perspectives are extreme.

I never expects the riders I really like to do really well so there's that bias too. But my guess would be either Almeida ends up with a GT win in his palmares. Or with some GT podiums. Sort of.

But we'll see. (I'm not even going to pretend not to be negatively biased towards riders I like :grinning:)
 
I think the fact that I started liking Almeida after Stelvio and Vingegaard the second I saw him on Angliru has something to do with how I see Almeida and positioning. Vingegaard is just so good at it even before he won TdF. So my perspectives are extreme.

I never expects the riders I really like to do really well so there's that bias too. But my guess would be either Almeida ends up with a GT win in his palmares. Or with some GT podiums. Sort of.

But we'll see. (I'm not even going to pretend not to be negatively biased towards riders I like :grinning:)

At least you are self-aware.
 
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