João Almeida ready to lead the line at Tour de Suisse

With the Tour de France on the horizon, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will take to the start of the final WorldTour stage race before this summer’s Grand Départ. Beginning on Sunday, João Almeida will be back to lead the line for the Emirati squad at the Tour de Suisse, with the Portuguese rider looking to defend the title won by the team last season.

It is a race that Almeida knows well, given he finished second here behind eventual winner and teammate Adam Yates last time out. Both men enjoyed an incredible outing in Switzerland, with UAE Team Emirates-XRG dominating the final half of the race.

Between the pair, the Emirati squad won all four of the final stages, and on each of those days, Yates and Almeida claimed 1-2 across the line. With two stage wins going to Yates and two going to Almeida, the latter could hardly wish for a better precursor to this year’s edition. With Yates’ path to the Tour de France going through the Giro d’Italia, Almeida will lead UAE Team Emirates-XRG at the Tour de Suisse, and the 26-year-old is raring to go after a recent spell at altitude.

Almeida: “It’s been a pretty good season for me so far this year, and I want to keep on that path as we build up towards the Tour de France.

“Training has been going well, we’ve just come back from altitude with most of the Tour team and now it’s time to test the legs.

“It’s no secret that I really like the Tour du Suisse. After what we did here last year we will be coming back aiming to defend the title. It’s never an easy thing to do – but we’ll give it a good shot.”

Led by Sports Directors Fabrizio Guidi (Ita) and Simone Pedrazzini (Ita) in the team cars, UAE Team Emirates-XRG have selected a versatile contingent to support Almeida’s ambitions in Switzerland.

In António Morgado, last year’s runner-up up will have a Portuguese compatriot on the road, whilst home favourite Jan Christen will once more link up with Almeida, after their stage-winning combination at this year’s Volta ao Algarve.

Forming the engine room, Julius Johansen, Mikkel Bjerg and Vegard Stake Laengen will be called upon, with all three riders proving ever-dependable through the early months of the campaign. For Johansen, it will be a first outing since the Vuelta Asturias in April, where the Dane came mightily close to snatching his first victory in UAE Team Emirates-XRG colours.

Finally, Felix Großschartner of Austria will round out the seven-man squad and likely prove instrumental to Almeida in the mountains. The 31-year-old finished runner-up at the Tour of Slovenia last week, demonstrating a strong vein of form heading into the Tour de Suisse.

As for the route, the first two stages of the eight-day race look set to suit the puncheurs. On the opening day, a 3.8km-long steep climb within the finale could prove spicy, before an uphill drag to the line on stage 2 will also offer hope to those sprinters who can tackle shallower climbs.

For the general classification riders, stage 3 will draw the riders out of hiding, should the first two stages have failed to do so. After a meandering first 140km of racing, the final 50km of stage 3 will pack in well over 1,000m of climbing and see the riders end on a 3km climb at 5.3%. The following day, the peloton will crest the Splügen Pass, which stands at over 2,000m in altitude.

Stage 5 will be the Queen stage of this year’s Tour de Suisse, bringing with it 3,620m of climbing and both the Julier Pass and Passo San Bernadino. The latter will mark the #rideforgino prize, in ode to the late Swiss rider Gino Mäder. Once over the Passo San Bernadino, the riders will head part of the way up the final climb before turning off and taking in a circuit. Once they reach the foot of the final climb for the last time, 6.4km will remain at a testing average gradient of 9.5%.

The sprinters should come to the fore again on stage 6, before stage 7 will act as the final road stage of the race. At the end of the seventh stage, the GC contenders will once more do battle, this time on a 3.1km climb to the line at 8.9%. This will be the longest stage of the race at 207.3km.

The final stage will take the shape of a 10.1km-long individual time trial, with the majority of the route trending uphill at an average gradient of 9%. This is a textbook climbing time trial and is not dissimilar from the stage won by Almeida last season.