The fifth round of the Volta à Catalunya was the most decisive test in relation to the five mountain counts, with more than 4500 meters of difference in level. And after the penultimate climb, João Almeida saw his hopes limited when he suffered a fall that took away his possibility of being in the group of main favorites.
Despite getting back on the bike, the UAE Emirates rider was unable to close the gap on his rivals and made a final climb up the Coll de Pal trying to make up for lost time. As such, it was not truly possible to assess the physical condition of the cyclist, who had already been out of Paris-Nice due to flu-like illness.
Almeida ended up crossing the finish line 1m59s behind the stage winner, moving up to 16th place in the individual overall. At this stage, the top-10 becomes the most realistic goal, checking, of course, the athlete’s physical condition to be able to continue in the race or not. Skjelmose, from Lidl-Trek, is in seventh place, for example, just 20 seconds behind.
On the final climb, Jonas Vingegaard did what he had already achieved in the Tirreno-Adriatico and didn’t give his competition a chance. The Visma man and great candidate to win the Tour of Italy – where João Almeida will also be taking part – started 6 km away and created a progressive gap, finishing 51s behind Felix Gall, from Decathlon, and 1m01s behind Lenny Martínez, from Bahrain, second and third place also overall. The Dane, winner of a Vuelta and two Tours de France, also saw Evenepoel (Bora) stay away from the lead, losing more than a minute and a half.
The final climb of Queralt is only 6 km, although the riders will first encounter a special category and another 1st category during the 6th stage. Vingegaard is the clear favorite to achieve victory in the race before the circuit in Barcelona on Sunday. After Paris-Nice, Tyrrhenian, Basque Country, Tour of Poland and Dauphiné, the Dane could well secure the sixth race of a week-long World Tour. Among the biggest, Tour à Switzerland and Romandia, both Swiss events, would be missing.
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