Going into stage 8, Almeida trailed the courageous Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa–B&B Hotels) by 33 seconds, with Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro) sitting third at 41 seconds. But the ITT course was tailor-made for the 26-year-old Portuguese, who is an excellent time trial rider and was the best climber in the race. Most of the10km course from Beckenried to Stockhütte consisted of a difficult ascent (9.2km @ 9%, with ramps up to 12.6%), and Almeida made the most of it.
He beat Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) by 25 seconds, with a third climber, Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL), coming third, 1:12 adrift. Vauquelin, who is not a climber, nevertheless finished an admirable fourth, 1:40 behind the winner, but lost the yellow jersey. Almeida won the GC by 1:07 over Vauquelin, who won a lot of fans with his gritty performance. Onley finished third in the race, at 1:58. Alaphilippe is neither a top time trial rider nor a strong climber and finished a whopping 3:49 behind Almeida in the ITT, but his fifth-place GC finish suggests that he is slowly coming back to his best.
An embarrassing beginning
“It was a long way to go, one mistake can cost you a lot, but luckily we could make up for it,” the delighted winner said after the race. “I’m super happy. I did a really good climb. For a few moments I thought my power meter wasn’t calibrated because it was showing high numbers.”
Almeida went on to say that, after the disappointment of stage 1, he and his team went into fightback mode. “We did a perfect job. We fought for the win, we never gave up, we always believed and in the end we did it,” he said, adding: “I think in the end it’s a lesson. You should never give up. Sometimes things go wrong, sometimes things aren’t perfect. You just need to keep trying. And we kept trying and we did it.”
Almeida came into the race as the strong favorite as it contained many mountains and much climbing over its 1,283km of racing. But he and his team left him with a lot to do after a faux pas on stage 1, when they let a strong breakaway get away and were then unable or otherwise incapable of chasing it down. This led to an impressive victory by the 22-year-old Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), 20 seconds ahead of Vauquelin and 3:12 ahead of Almeida.
The real worry for UAE Team Emirates–XRG was surely Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla), a strong climber who had been part of the stage 1 breakaway and lost only 1:07 to the winner. Being 2:05 behind a rider who had finished second in last year’s Vuelta a España and has won a stage in each of the three Grand Tours must have worried Almeida.
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A relentless fightback
He began his fightback with a second place – behind Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) – on stage 3, gaining 6 bonus seconds, then won stage 4, which featured the first real mountain in the race, taking 1:10 from Vauquelin and 48 seconds (including bonus seconds) from O’Connor. Grégoire still wore the yellow jersey, with Vauquelin in second, at 25 seconds, and Alaphilippe just 4 seconds farther down in third. But Almeida had reduced the gap to the leader to 2:07 and to O’Connor to 1:09, with his favorite terrain, the high mountains, just down the road.
Stage 5 was the queen stage, with four category 1 climbs, including the steep climb to the finish (4.5km @ 9.8%) at Santa Maria in Calanca. Grégoire was dropped on an earlier climb and never recovered, while O’Connor lost touch with the lead group on the final climb with 5.4km still left to ride. As for Vauquelin, he fell behind early on that climb but battled stubbornly to limit his losses, as in front Onley outsprinted Almeida for the stage win. With 3 stages left to ride, Vauquelin now had the yellow jersey, 29 seconds ahead of Alaphilippe and 39 seconds in front of Almeida. O’Connor was now out of contention, trailing the leader by 2:16.
Stage 6, won by Jordi Meeus (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe) in a bunch sprint, and Saturday’s stage 7, a medium-mountain stage won by Almeida, who outsprinted Onley and the ever-persistent Vauquelin, did little to alter the GC standings. But it did highlight the courage of the 24-year-old French rider, who took off on his own with 400m left to ride to try to bag a stage win, only to be caught by Almeida and Onley in the final 50m.
That set up the dramatic final stage and added suspense to a race that probably would have been decided three stages earlier if UAE had not botched the opener. Because Almeida was, head and shoulders, the best rider in the race and closest to being in top form. For all his grit and courage, Vauquelin really never had a chance. But his second place is a well-deserved triumph.
A proud loser
“Of course, I’m disappointed; I had high expectations of myself,” Vauquelin said. “I tried to give it my all, but I felt I lacked some of the guts I had on Saturday. I had a little less power, and it doesn’t help when it’s uphill because, in a normal trial, you’re motivated by the speed.”
He was nevertheless proud of his performance, which he accomplished with a team suffering from financial difficulties after a main sponsor left. “We had no ambition to go for the GC. Now I’ve reached a milestone with second place. That’s phenomenal ahead of the Tour because I have to admit that we didn’t even have a chef with us this week. We have fewer resources as a team due to a complicated financial situation. I hope this result will attract sponsors and help the team.” If it doesn’t, he will certainly have many top teams clamoring for his services.
As for Almeida, who has now won his last three stage races following wins in the Itzulia Basque Country and the Tour de Romandie, he will be Tadej Pogačar’s main man in the Tour de France, where he will probably prove that he has become the best domestique in the world.
Results of Tour de Suisse, Stage 8, 10.1km ITT
- Joao Almeida, UAE Team Emirates–XRG 27:33
- Felix Gall, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale +0:25
- Oscar Onley, Picnic PostNL +1:12
- Kévin Vauquelin, Arkéa–B&B Hotels +1:40
- Harrison Sweeny, EF Education–EasyPost +1:54
- Aleksandr Vlasov, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +2:04
- Ben O’Connor, Jayco AlUla +2:07
- Will Barta, Movistar +2:13
- Finlay Pickering, Bahrain Victorious +2:14
- Ilan Van Wilder (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step +2:19
2025 Tour de Suisse, Final General Classification
- Joao Almeida, UAE Team Emirates–XRG +29:29:01
- Kévin Vauquelin, Arkéa–B&B Hotels +1:07
- Oscar Onley, Picnic PostNL +1:58
- Felix Gall, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale +2:20
- Julian Alaphilippe, Tudor Pro +3:57
- Lennard Kämna, Lidl-Trek +4:52
- Ben O’Connor, Jayco AlUla +5:08
- Ilan Van Wilder, Soudal Quick-Step +6:16
- Pablo Castrillo, Movistar +6:41
- Clément Champoussin, XDS Astana +8:30
