João Almeida shone on the road again, winning the fourth stage of the return to the Basque country and taking the lead of the general classification-an unprecedented feat for a Portuguese cyclist in this race.
In a 169.6 km demanding stage between Beasain and Markina-xmein, UAE cyclist Emirates attacked 13 kilometers from the goal, isolated themselves in front and resisted the persecution of the favorite group. Along the way, he surpassed the last mountain count, first category, and went down to cut the goal in solitary.
In the persecution were names such as Alex Aranburu (Cofidis), Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) and Maximilian Schachmann (Soutal Quick-Step), which arrived 28 seconds late. However, it was teammate Isaac Del Toro who won second place in the stage, also ensuring that Schachmann did not add important bonuses.
With this victory, João Almeida now leads the general with 30 seconds advantage over Schachmann and 38 seconds about Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull – Bora). In addition to the yellow jersey, Portuguese is also the new leader of points classification.
In the end, João Almeida was pleased: “I am very happy, I felt good today. I gave everything I had. I want to thank the team for work. In the end I did not feel 100%, but it was enough to win. Tomorrow and Saturday will be very hard days, but now it is time to enjoy.”
