What message did Pogacar send to UAE teammates Yates and Almeida after their standout performances in Switzerland? And what does this mean for the Tour?
With the Tour of Switzerland concluded, the second major mountainous preparation race for the Tour de France has ended. In the Alps, it was all about UAE-Team Emirates. Adam Yates and Joao Almeida ultimately shared the spoils in Villars-Sur-Ollon, which Tadej Pogacar, on altitude training in Isola 2000, will have been watching with pleasure. IDLProCycling.com caught up with both men after the final stage.
In the last four days, the Portuguese and the British rider managed to take the top two spots equally, which was indicative of the dominance they displayed in Switzerland. In the final time trial, Almeida won for a second time, with Yates following eight seconds behind. "I wasn’t really thinking about the overall win anymore, because it was a climbing time trial. That suits Adam well," Almeida explained.
"It was a tough time trial, but my legs were good," added Yates. "All that was going through my mind was the final time trial in Tirreno-Adriatico in 2019. I ended up losing the stage race by one second back then and I really didn’t want that to happen again. So, I kept pushing." The culprit at that time was Primoz Roglic, who thus clinched that Tirreno. "After the finish, I was spent; the lactic acid was through the roof. If you’d asked me to walk two meters, I couldn’t have managed. It was really tough at the end."
UAE-Team Emirates concluded the Swiss stage race with an A++, both men agreed. "I don’t think we could have done anything better, for me it was the perfect stage race and preparation for the Tour de France," concluded Almeida.
Pogacar was already sending messages to his winning teammates
Someone who was not seen in the Tour preparation races was Pogacar. The Slovenian watched as Nils Politt, Tim Wellens, Pavel Sivakov, and Juan Ayuso fell during the Critérium du Dauphiné, but the performances of Almeida and Yates will surely uplift the spirits of their fans. How did he react to his teammates’ achievements? “He’s been sending messages all the time, about everything really,” Yates says with a smile. “But he must be busy with his training and preparations, so we will see him in a few days. We’ll meet him in Isola 2000 and catch up then.”
Despite their performances, the two do not harbor general classification ambitions in the Tour. “Last year it wasn’t really the plan to go for the GC either,” explains Yates, who finished third last year. “It only came up in the third week, and it’s not my goal this time either. We are fully riding for Tadej, and we’re heading there with a strong team and a good amount of confidence. If we don’t make any mistakes, it should be a great race.”
“I am very satisfied to win this race,” continues the Brit. “It’s really a big victory for me, especially since Joao is standing with me on the podium. What more could we ask for?” says Yates, who reportedly produced his best power outputs. “The numbers I saw looked really good. But there's a difference between isolated climbs and very tough stages. What I mainly remember is that we stood out a bit above the rest in this strong peloton.”
Almeida agreed with his teammate. “I am happy with the power outputs, but the conditions were also quite perfect. The Tour is not far away and many guys are in shape, but that includes us too. We are very confident, but not overly so. Maybe we can relax a bit now, before the Tour kicks off.”