“I will be at the Tour to support Tadej, and I will do so unconditionally” • João Almeida is ready to die for Pogacar

Following a great performance in the 2024 Tour de France, where he helped Tadej Pogacar get to fourth place overall, João Almeida will once again be the UAE Team Emirates leader’s main super-domestique in 2025.

It was at the Tour de Suisse that I think I did my best. In comments to radsport-news.com, the 26-year-old Portuguese cyclist talks about the past season: “Then I got sick and didn’t feel 100% at the Tour de France, but I was still pretty well.” “I will go to the Tour (in 2025, correct?) to support Tadej, and I will do so without any conditions. It can still be good for me.”

The Giro d’Italia is likely the Grand Tour where Almeida has done the best so far in his career. The Portuguese rider wore the Maglia Rosa for 15 days in 2020. He also came third in the Grand Tour and won his first stage race in Italy in 2023. But in 2025, UAE Team Emirates has confirmed that both Adam Yates and Juan Ayuso will be riding in the Italian Grand Tour. Almeida, on the other hand, will focus on his job as Pogacar’s support driver at the Tour de France.

He says with thought, “Of course I thought about the Giro, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I would rather ride the Tour again.” “I’ve already done the Giro and the Vuelta a lot of times, so I’d rather do the Tour again when I’m at my best, and then I’ll see what I can do.”

This season, Almeida competed in both the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España. If he is still in good shape and level at the time of the Spanish Grand Tour, he might do the same thing again in 2025.