Almeida Running Out of Road as Vuelta Cuts TT by Half

Stage 17 of the Vuelta a España saw tiring GC contenders and a slight time loss by Jonas Vingegaard and João Almeida (Photo: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)

There are three key stages to go in this year’s Vuelta a España but while Jonas Vingegaard and João Almeida are comfortably ahead of the other challengers, both riders may be running out of steam.

Race leader Vingegaard and the rider in second overall, Almeida, were both by their own admission a little below par on Wednesday.

Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) soloed to victory after springing clear and the other GC contenders looked at each other. Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) and Pellizzari’s teammate Jai Hindley sprinted in 16 and 18 seconds back respectively, taking the remaining time bonuses.

Vingegaard was at 20 seconds, Almeida at 22.

The gap were not huge by any means. But there was a shift in energy, with third-placed Pidcock and fourth-place Hindley clearly on the up and, on Wednesday at least, Vingegaard and Almeida lacking the previous edge they had on everyone else in the race.

Either rider would need a meltdown to let another challenger in to the top two slots, but Almeida’s mission to win the race took an additional blow on Wednesday evening.

Citing safety, the race organizers announced that they were cutting the route of Thursday’s individual TT by 15 kilometers.

“With the aim of ensuring greater protection for the stage, the organizers of La Vuelta, in coordination with Valladolid City Council and following consultation with the College of Commissaires, have decided that tomorrow’s time trial will be contested over a 12.2 kilometer route, with the start and finish remaining as originally planned.”

Good news for Vingegaard? Certainly reducing the TT by more than half means any gains by Almeida will be limited if the Portuguese rider is on a better day.

But still, with a short uphill to come on Friday and then a hors categorie summit finish on Saturday, faltering legs by either rider could add up.

‘I didn’t have the best day, but I survived’

Vingegaard’s team did a considerable amount of work before and during the final climb, paving the way for a big move by the team leader. Matteo Jorgenson and Ben Tulett drove the pace and thinned the group right out, with Jorgenson quite clear afterwards what the objective was.

“The plan was to go for the stage. We don’t know how many more mountain stages there will be, so we wanted to make sure at least the GC group could have the chance to go for the stage win,” he said.

Vingegaard looked poised to move, sitting back as Hindley, Pellizzari, Pidcock and Matthew Riccitello (IPT) did all the work, but ultimately he never kicked clear.

“To be honest I think the five, six of us were really equal today,” he admitted afterwards.

“I didn’t have the very best day for me, but I survived. I guess they are the days you need to survive, the days you don’t feel 100 percent. If you can get through those without losing any time, that is a good day.”

Almeida needed to try to gain time and to reduce his deficit heading towards the final weekend. In the end he drifted off the back when the attacks first began, although he said afterwards that he sensed the other riders wouldn’t be able to maintain their initial pace.

Even if that initial gap was down to tactics rather than strength, he never looked to be close to the form he showed earlier in the race.

“Jonas was not looking super, but I didn’t as well,” he told Eurosport afterwards. “I think we were all a little bit in the same boat.”

‘It’s a bit of a shame, really’

Pellizzari was clearly strong and made the most of the cautious racing when he surged clear. Pidcock was best of the rest and put in a very impressive acceleration close to the line, dropping the rest.

He’s looking increasingly like a podium finisher in the race, which would be his best-ever grand tour result, but admitted to mixed feelings about missing a stage win.

“I think that is the sacrifice when you are riding for the podium,” he said. “I sacrificed the stage, it could have been really nice. It’s a bit of a shame really.

“We are racing for the podium, that’s the main goal. So we have to make decisions, I guess.”

The Olympic MTB champion is now sitting 2:28 off the race lead. While it’s hard to see him taking enough time out of either Vingegaard or Almeida, he’ll certainly go all in to take a stage win before Sunday. He’ll also go all out on Thursday in the TT to defend his 36 second advantage over Hindley.

‘It was an awful TT for me’

As for Vingegaard, he is hoping for a better showing in the TT than he had two years ago. The race was also held then in Valladolid, the venue for stage 18 of this year’s race, but the Dane was way back in tenth place. He lost 1:18 to the winner Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) over 25.8km, and surrendered 1:02 to runner-up Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step).

Almeida was fourth, beating him by 28 seconds.

“To be honest, that was an awful time trial for me back then,” Vingegaard said. “So hopefully I can make it right this time. It is a flat time trial, we will see. Hopefully I can do well tomorrow.”

Almeida will hope for the same, and also for the same legs that he had on the Angliru on stage 13 for Saturday’s big showdown on the Bola del Mundo climb.

Wednesday will be concerning; there is scope yet for things to turn around.

“It was quite steep for the first part. It was really hard,” he said of the summit finish on stage 17. “And then the second part was super windy so nobody really wanted to spend more. So it was a tricky climb in the end.

“We almost arrive all together, just some guys had a big better sprint than the others.”

Saturday is a much harder climb and shouldn’t come down to a group sprinting to the line.

Will he have enough in the tank to make a difference? It’s an intriguing question, particularly if he can repeat his Valladolid TT of two years ago and narrow the gap before then.