Vauquelin is brutally hard on himself after missed opportunity in Switzerland, will Almeida benefit from error in judgment?

UAE had controlled the day clearly aiming for a stage win with Almeida. But Vauquelin nearly pulled off a smart surprise attack. He briefly dropped back and then launched a powerful uphill acceleration in the final kilometer, creating a significant gap. But just before the finish, he ran out of steam. Almeida and Oscar Onley caught him, and Vauquelin ended up third, losing the stage win and six valuable bonus seconds (10 vs. 4) to Almeida.

“I’m really, really disappointed,” admitted the Frenchman candidly after the stage. He blamed himself for missing the win, and the chance to extend his GC lead. “We rode a perfect race and I handled the last two climbs well. I knew I could win the stage if I made it through them, since I was probably the fastest of our group. Maybe I attacked a little too early, maybe it was too far, and I cracked. I missed the victory by just a few meters.”

The missed victory, and the lost bonus seconds, could prove costly for Vauquelin in Sunday’s mountain time trial. “Winning today really would’ve helped, especially for tomorrow. We came here to win a stage, and I truly believed I had it. I kept pushing on that final climb, even with Almeida trying to crack me. I told myself the stage was mine, but I came up just short. In the time trial, anything can happen, it’ll be a battle with myself. I’m going to give it everything.”

Almeida, meanwhile, wasn’t thinking about GC time either, he was going all-in for the stage win. And he got it. “We were aiming for the stage because we had nothing to lose. The gap to the leader is smaller again, but 33 seconds is still a lot. The overall win isn’t guaranteed, but today was about the stage. The team worked all day and I had to finish it off. The final sprint was brutal, I counted every meter.”

Can he close those 33 seconds over 10 kilometers uphill? On paper, yes, but Almeida was cautious. “One more day of full gas, and we’ll see what happens. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. A mountain time trial is great when you have good legs, but if you don’t, it’s a nightmare. Hopefully mine are good enough.”

Behind Vauquelin and Almeida, Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) and Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) are typically battling for third place in the general classification. The 22-year-old Brit seems to be the stronger climber, but he still has to make up 38 seconds on "Loulou." “I wanted to try to gain more time today by crossing to Frank (van den Broek, ed.) up the road and then attacking. But the breakaway didn’t get enough time.”

An attack on the final climb also wasn’t possible. “There was a headwind, so it wasn't so easy to make a difference. I think I can be happy with the result, because there’s not much I can do about the others. On Sunday, I’ll just go as hard as I can, we’ll see where I end up. There's no tactics. It’s out of my hands.”