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João Almeida continues to be the leader of the Volta a Itália, honor and burden that he will carry this Sunday, in a crucial stage in the future of the Portuguese in this Giro – e which will be a great test of the physical and tactical ability of the Caldas da Rainha cyclist.
That is why this Saturday’s stage would also be ideal to manage forces. So it was. The peloton, commanded by Quick-Step – and with Almeida always close to the head of the group – allowed a flight of six riders to gain a huge lead and not only gave the fugitives a “rope” but rolled smoothly during the stage , saving energy for the hard Sunday.
In the end, among the fugitives, the strongest was Alex Dowsett (Israel Start-Up) – rider recently featured in Tour Stories –, who, also motivated by not having a team for 2021, left the front group and reached the goal in isolation, a bit like Filippo Ganna had done in step 5. Salvatore Puccio (Ineos) and Matthew Holmes (Lotto) completed the podium of this stage 8.
Further back in the peloton, João Almeida was able to continue relatively calmly and nothing happened among the main favorites to win the Giro, which came almost 15 minutes after the winner of the day.
For this Sunday, before the rest day, the route of stage 9 brings the biggest test for the Portuguese leadership, who will have to pass three mountain counts, none particularly hard in terms of absolute slope, but included in a “climb and descent “descends” steadily for more than 200 kilometers.
There will, of course, be a fight between the main favorites to win the Giro and João Almeida starts with some margin over all of them: he has, for example, 48 seconds ahead of Kelderman, 1m01 for Nibali, 1m19s for Fuglsang or 1m21s for Kruijswijk.
When leaving the stage this Sunday dressed in pink, Almeida, in theory, will be able to maintain the leadership for another week, until stage 15 (October 18), a day on which he may even have an even greater advantage, as a result of the against. -Clock set for the 17th.
