Almeida strikes for another stage win as Yates seals Tour de Suisse

UAE Team Emirates sealed another major victory in their 2024 campaign with Adam Yates taking the overall crown ahead of his teammate Joao Almeida on the final day of the Tour de Suisse.

Almeida was victorious on the final uphill TT stage from Aigle to Villars-sur-Ollon (15.7km), clocking a time of 23’33”, narrowly beating Yates by 8”. The win marks the 43rd triumph of the season for the Emirati team.

Almeida : “I’m really happy with the time trial stage victory, I think my first TT victory except nationals so that’s pretty good. At the start of the day, I knew it was quite impossible to win the GC against Adam. He’s quite strong and it’s not a flat TT so I’m super happy with the win and the second place behind him. We did a perfect team work so it was a great week.”

The result leaves the team in good stead ahead of the upcoming Tour de France where both Yates and Almeida are set to play crucial roles.

Yates: “It’s definitely up there with my biggest wins. About two days to go, I wasn’t sure if I could do it. Obviously, I had the two time checks with João in front of me and I knew he was going to accelerate a little bit there in the end. Actually, I just couldn’t accelerate, I was already over the limit so I just tried to hold the pace and thankfully it was enough.

I’m still out of breath because it was such a hard climb but one thing I had in the back of my mind for a while was the 2019 Tirreno-Adriatico where I lost the TT on the last day by one second and this had lived rent-free in my head for many years so it’s finally good to win a race and win it with a TT like this. To win any big bike race is a big privilege and to share the podium with Joao as well, he’s a special teammate.”

Stage 8 results

1.Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) 33’23”

2.Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) +8”

3.Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl Trek) +20”

Final General Classification

1.Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) 20:18:49

2.Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +22”

3.Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +3’02”

Pablo Torres impresses with 2nd at Giro D’Italia Next Gen

Gen Z rider Pablo Torres,18, impressed at the Giro D’Italia Next Gen by taking 2nd place overall in one of the premier under-23 races on the calendar. The Spanish talent from Madrid rode consistently throughout the week to take home the second place on the podium behind Belgian race winner Jarno Widar (Lotto Dystny).

Torres: “I’m really delighted with this result. I worked really hard for this, obviously I would have loved to have won but Jarno was very strong so well done to him. My dream is to be a GC rider and ride the biggest races in cycling. I want to keep progressing as a cyclist and working hard to see how far I can go. Now I’ll go to the National Championships which will be a tough circuit against also the professionals and then Valle D’Aosta which will be my next big goal of the season.”