A gregarious man falls, but thirst does not end: Almeida in 3rd

Despite Quinn Simmons' victory, second place in the third stage allowed João Almeida to reduce the gap to the yellow jersey by six seconds. Did we have a candidate for the final victory? Not really. In the following stage, the Portuguese rider's victory in Piuro reduced the gap to the leader by more than a minute. Did we have a candidate for the final victory? Not really. In the last stage, another second place with the same time as the winner Oscar Onley and just 39 seconds behind the top of the overall standings. Did we have a candidate for the final victory? Now it seems that we did. And that was the big difference before the decisive stage.

More than just rain, the first stage of the Tour of Switzerland brought a real bucket of cold water to João Almeida, who was one of the main surprises when he cut two climbs in the first 30 kilometres that the peloton would not recover. UAE Team Emirates and many others fell asleep where they couldn't, almost putting an end to what could have been the deciding factor for victory in Switzerland. The Portuguese rider himself, one of the four in the race alongside António Morgado, Rui Costa and Nelson Oliveira, thought that this was going to be an almost decisive chapter in the 2025 edition. Believe it or not , things were changing.

“It’s definitely more possible now than yesterday [Wednesday], so we gave it our all. I wasn’t feeling very good, I wasn’t at 100%, but it was all we could do. On the last climb I managed. I couldn’t go any faster than that. I set my pace and in the end I was still very close to winning, but Oscar deserved it too. I think I made a mistake in the sprint, my pedals were too small. When I accelerated, 200 meters from the finish, he passed me. I still managed to catch up but I was already on the line. Winning is definitely possible. We’re close, we have to keep fighting”, he commented after the fifth stage.

Now came a 186-kilometre link between Chur and Neuhausen am Rheinfall which, despite the distance and the work that had to be done in the peloton, was almost a breather before the two stages to decide the individual overall. Thus, and despite a breakaway that was left with just three members until the last kilometre, the victory ended up being decided by a sprint, with Jordi Meeus, from Red Bull Bora, giving the competition no chance, finishing ahead of Davide Ballerini (Astana) and Lewis Askey (Groupama). João Almeida was 33rd, included in the peloton, on a day that had other “news”.

Jan Christen, a Swiss rider who was criticised by his team-mates and team directors in the early days of the Tour de Suisse but who was important for the Portuguese rider to win the fourth stage after a start 50 kilometres from the finish, ended up withdrawing halfway through the sixth stage, leaving UAE Team Emirates without any remaining members of the race. As a result, Almeida will now only be able to count on his compatriot António Morgado, Félix Grosschartner, Julius Johansen, Vegard Stake Laengen and Mikkel Bjerg, especially for this Saturday's stage, which will have two second-category races and one third-category race at the finish, all in the second half of the day (on Sunday, the day of the eighth and final stage, there will be a ten-kilometre time trial in Stockhütte.

In terms of overall, Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa) remains in the lead, with Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) 32 seconds behind and João Almeida 39 seconds behind. Next in the top 10 are Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL, 1.21), Lennard Kamna (Lidl-Trek, 1.44), Ben O'Connor (Jayco, 2.16), Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R, 2.20), Pablo Castrillo (Movistar, 2.40), Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Remier Tech, 3.08) and Ilan van Wilder (Soudal Quick-Step, 3.17).