The pains were too strong for João Almeida, who suffered from a broken coast and whose body was burned in multiple places since its fall Friday before the arrival in Mûr-de-Bretagne. The Portuguese runner of Uae Team Emirates – XRG who had suffered a lot on Saturday to finish the stage in 168th place at 6′42 ′ ‘by Jonathan Milan, had to give up this Sunday. He set off on the ground 82 km from the finish in Châteauroux during the 9th stage of the Tour de France.
The abandonment of Almeida, 4th in the Tour de France last year and recent winner of the towers of the Basque Country, Romandie and Switzerland, could redraw the balance of power between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard in the match between their teams, UAE Team Emirates and Visma-Lease A Bike, in the coming days. The triple winner of the Tour de France indeed loses its main lieutenant, who often served as a top floor of the mountain rocket. He can only count on Adam Yates and Marc Soler.
Pogacar had seen just by evoking the suffering of Almeida after the arrival in Laval on Saturday: “He obviously suffered a lot. Fortunately, the stage was not too hard, but it was sometimes bad, on certain accelerations. I really get my hat. But we know that the second day is often the hardest after a fall. With a broken coast, it’s hard to breathe. We do not ask him to go beyond his limits and I don’t want him to kill his body. It’s just a bicycle. »»