Portuguese rider Almeida wins Tour de Suisse
Joao Almeida claimed consecutive stage victories to win the Tour de Suisse
- Published
Team UAE rider Joao Almeida edged past overnight leader Kevin Vauquelin to win the Tour de Suisse after a superb closing time trial.
Portugal's Almeida beat Austrian Felix Gall by 25 seconds and Frenchman Vauquelin, who finished the final stage fourth, by one minute and 40 seconds.
"I think I started too fast," said Almeida after the closing 10.1km uphill time trial.
"I overpaced in the beginning. In the end, I hoped to have enough gas to push in the last kilometre, but in the end it was not necessary.
"It's a lesson: you should never give up. Sometimes things go wrong and nothing is perfect, but you need to keep trying.
"We kept trying and we did it."
Almeida backed up his stage victory on Saturday when he reduced Vauquelin's lead to 33 seconds.
Another dominant display on Sunday handed Almeida a winning margin of one minute and seven seconds over Vauquelin in the overall standings.
The 26-year-old, who lost last year's race by 22 seconds, will now set his sights on supporting team-mate Tadej Pogacar in the defence of his Tour de France title.
"I'll have time to enjoy this win and I'll be ready for the Tour de France," Almeida said.
"I'll support Tadej Pogacar there and hope we can get more great wins."
Britain's Oscar Onley finished the final stage and the overall race in third.
Stage eight results
Joao Almeida (Por/Team UAE) 27mins 33secs
Felix Gall (Aut/Decathlon–AG2R) +25secs
Oscar Onley (GB/Picnic PostNL) +1min 12secs
Kevin Vauquelin (Fra/Arkea–B&B Hotels) +1min 40secs
Harry Sweeny (Aus/EF Education-EasyPost) +1min 54secs
General classification
Joao Almeida (Por/Team UAE) 29hrs 29mins 1secs
Kevin Vauquelin (Fra/Arkea–B&B Hotels) +1min 07secs
Oscar Onley (GB/Picnic PostNL) +1min 58secs
Felix Gall (Aut/Decathlon–AG2R) +2mins 20secs
Julian Alaphilippe (Fra/Tudor Pro Cycling) +3mins 57secs