It's 50 wins already for UAE Team Emirates-XRG this season, including 29 at UCI WorldTour level. On Sunday, João Almeida completed a stunning overall triumph in the Tour de Suisse with a third stage win to take the leader’s jersey from Kévin Vauquelin and claim yet another stage race for the Emirati outfit.
The same day, his teammate Filippo Baroncini was ruling the Baloise Belgium Tour (UCI ProSeries). And a week before, it was Tadej Pogačar who dominated the Critérium du Dauphiné, a display that also included three stage wins.
“We can take a lot of positives from this week and we turned all the negatives into positives,” the Slovenian superstar celebrated, turning to the Tour de France with joyful anticipation as he gets ready to join forces with Almeida to aim for a fourth victory in the Tour.
Evenepoel rules the ITT, Pogačar flies up the mountains
“Our rivals will be stronger but we’ll have two more climbers in the team,” Pogačar added after turning the tables on Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) and Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) en route to his first overall victory in the Critérium du Dauphiné, the seventh different UCI WorldTour stage race he adds to his winning record.
“The only time I came to the Dauphiné was in 2020 and I remember it as some of the hardest days of my career,” Pogačar recalled. At the time, the Amgen Tour of California was the only UCI WorldTour stage race he had dominated. But he was about to stun the world with a first Tour de France victory, before going on to claim the UAE Tour, Tirreno-Adriatico, Paris-Nice, the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, the Giro d’Italia and now the Critérium du Dauphiné.
His return to the French one-week stage race was stellar. As early as day 1, even though the course was deemed to favour sprinters, Pogačar followed Vingegaard’s attack in the last 6 kilometres and eventually sprinted to victory in Montluçon, where he momentarily swapped the rainbow jersey for the yellow and blue of leader of the Critérium du Dauphiné.
Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) took the overall lead the next day before losing the jersey to Ivan Romeo (Movistar Team) on stage 3 – and then Wednesday marked the big ITT rendezvous between Pogačar, Evenepoel and Vingegaard. This time, it was the Belgian wearing the rainbow jersey. And his dominant performance gave him the yellow and blue jersey. Pogačar (4th on the day) lost 49’’ to Evenepoel.
The Slovenian plans to do “some more work for the time trial” ahead of the Tour “and then I’m ready”. The final three stages showed his climbing strength, with victories in Combloux and Valmeinier 1800 before controlling Vingegaard on the way to Val-Cenis, where Lenny Martinez took the stage win while Pogačar sealed his overall victory.
Almeida's comeback from 25th
Pogačar stayed in the Alps, heading to Isola 2000 for altitude training while Almeida was leading UAE Team Emirates-XRG in the Tour de Suisse, June’s other UCI WorldTour stage race, while the new one-day race Copenhagen Sprint smiled on Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
Already the winner of Itzulia Basque Country and Tour de Romandie this season, Almeida came with the highest ambitions, after his second place in the 2024 edition of the Tour de Suisse, with two stage wins. But, as he returned to competition after a six-week break, the meticulous Portuguese rider saw attackers escape him on day 1.
France’s Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) took the win 20’’ in front of his countryman Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) while Almeida lost over three minutes (25th, +3'12''). The Portuguese may have got off to a bad start, but he was to turn the tables in spectacular fashion.
Always on the move, Almeida saw Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) and Oscar Onley (Team Picnic PostNL) win in front of him on days 3 and 5 but his aggressive racing met success in stages 4 and 7 before he dominated the closing uphill time - trial to complete his comeback and take his third UCI WorldTour stage race of the season, ahead of Vauquelin and Onley.
“I’ll have time to enjoy this win and I’ll be ready for the Tour de France,” Almeida announces. “I’ll support Tadej Pogačar there and hope we can get more great wins.”