There’s nothing to celebrate about abandon of a rider who had crashed two days earlier, but the stocks of Jonas Vingegaard at the Tour de France have massively improved with Tadej Pogacar’s right-hand man Joao Almeida no longer in the race. Suddenly, Visma | Lease a Bike have a whole load of new tactical options to play with.Almeida fell in the finale of stage 7 along some other GC men like Santiago Buitrago and was subsequently diagnosed with a broken rib. Still, the 26-year-old fought through the following stage to ultimately abandon on Sunday. “What mattered was that he crashed,” Vingegaard summed briefly for Ekstra Bladet his thoughts about the abandon of UAE’s key domestique Almeida.
To the Dane, it didn’t come as a surprise that the Portuguese was no longer able to continue. He, more than anyone, understands well that broken ribs are not something you can ignore: “So even if he had continued, it would have been to do something. Because when you’re in such a bad situation, it’s more about getting through than whether you can do anything.”
The Visma leader feels like the Tour might not be the same without Almeida: “Of course, it’s very disappointing. Both for them, but also for the cycling race. But what is most unfortunate is that he crashes,” he concluded.