One rider looks more than ready for the Tour: João Almeida turns heads with first public Strava ride in months

Almeida appears to live by the motto, "if I do it, I do it right." The Portuguese rider has logged just 18 public rides on Strava in total, with the last one dating back to February. But on Monday, a new ride suddenly appeared on the popular cycling platform.

This year’s winner of both the Tour of the Basque Country and the Tour de Romandie is currently on an altitude camp with the UAE Team Emirates-XRG Tour squad, and Monday’s training session was anything but easy. Almeida tackled the climb of El Puche (7.4 kilometres at an average gradient of 8.3 percent) in a blistering time of 20 minutes and 13 seconds.

Not only a tough 20-minute effort, but also a new KOM. The previous record belonged to Visma | Lease a Bike rider Sepp Kuss, who clocked 21 minutes and 56 seconds back in May 2022. That means Almeida shaved 1 minute and 43 seconds off the mark. The rest of the current top 10 includes riders like Jack Haig, Ben O'Connor, Damiano Caruso and Chris Harper, all of whom completed the climb in roughly 22 minutes.

João Almeida is expected to be Tadej Pogačar’s key climbing domestique at this year’s Tour de France. In the run-up to the race, the Portuguese rider, who finished fourth in last year’s Tour, will sharpen his form at the Tour de Suisse, while Pogačar is set to line up at the Critérium du Dauphiné.

Almeida claimed two stage victories at last year’s Tour de Suisse, though he ultimately left the overall win to his teammate Adam Yates. Judging by Almeida’s current Strava numbers, the competition will need to be on top form again to challenge him this year. Teammate Tim Wellens certainly took notice, commenting on Strava: "Strong João, you’re ready for the upcoming races."