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The Tour d’Italia leader will do his best to keep the pink jersey.
The Portuguese cyclist João Almeida (Deceunick-Quick Step) guaranteed this Saturday that he will “give his best” in Sunday’s tough ninth stage to keep the pink jersey, symbol of the leadership in the Tour of Italy, which he has maintained since the third round.
“It will be an important stage for the general classification and I am sure that the cyclists will attack to save time, while I will try to defend my pink jersey. Together with the team, we worked hard last week and I will do everything possible to keep the jersey”, assured his team’s website.
The athlete from Caldas da Rainha continues to be the leader in the Giro, after the eighth stage, won, isolated, by the British Alex Dowsett (Israel Star-up Nation).
“Today has been a quiet day, during which we have been able to rest our legs for Sunday, since nobody wanted to go after the attacker,” he explained, referring to a sextet that advanced early in the draw and left the squad at almost 14 minutes of the winner. .
João Almeida was 17th, joining the peloton led by Australian Michael Matthews (Sunweb), seventh, at 13.56 minutes, and continues to lead the Giro, a feat that has been cemented since the third round.
“The last seven days have been very difficult and stressful, so the teams wanted to have an easier stage before Sunday, which will be a very difficult day with a lot of climbing,” he added.
The Portuguese is 43 seconds ahead of the Spanish Pello Bilbao (Bahrain) and 48 seconds ahead of the Dutch Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb), second and third, respectively.
On Sunday, the eve of the first rest day, the ninth stage will be held, with 208 kilometers that link San Salvo with Roccaraso, with the aim of coinciding with a first-class mountain count of 9.6 kilometers and with climbs up to 12.% Pending.
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