Almeida still not fully fit, will not race Tour de France
João Almeida and UAE Team Emirates-XRG left room for the Portuguese all-rounder to line up at the Tour de France after he withdrew his name from the Giro d'Italia earlier this season, but the 27-year-old is still not feeling quite himself. Though he will make a long-awaited re-appearance at the Dauphiné this coming week, the Tour is not on the cards at this stage.
"To ride the Tour, you have to be in your very best shape. Otherwise you don't have much to hope for," Almeida told Portuguese sports newspaper O Jogo, though he did leave a crack in the door in case there are "problems in the UAE Tour team".
He went on to describe his return to training after a reported viral infection kept him from his season's main objective in Italy. "Finally I feel a little recovered and I notice that the training is also going better. What I had, I don't know exactly. In the tests I did, different values did emerge, but we never really understood what exactly was going on."
After the Dauphiné, Almeida is expected to race the Clásica San Sebastián and Vuelta a Burgos, both early August, before he heads to his fifth Vuelta later the same month where he will target the red jersey.
"Yes, that's what people are used to by now," Almeida said in response to the question as to his intentions in Spain. "The competition will be fierce, but for me a top-3 or top-5 place is no longer satisfying. After the Vuelta, of course, I also ride the World Championships."
