Portugal’s Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) won the first stage of the Tour of Luxembourg on a bike today, taking the lead in the 81st edition of the race, ahead of the rest of the peloton in the “sprint”.
Almeida, 23, added his fifth win of the season after a 140km departure and arrival in Luxembourg City in 3:16.09 hours, ahead of second-placed Dutch Bauke Mollem (Trek-Segafredo) and Swiss Marc Hirschi (UAE Emirates), third.
After a bumpy profile throughout the day, Almeida started a “sprint” on the left while the rest of the favorites “hooked” on the right, and took advantage of the free path to accelerate until he got his hands up, with more of a difference from his rivals.
He is the third Portuguese to win in Luxembourg after Joaquim Agostinho in 1969 and Acasio da Silva in 1983 (he also won the 1990 prologue) and confirmed expectations ahead of the start of the race in which he was spotted. as one of the big favorites, if not the main one, to win the race.
The 2021 season, which will be a farewell to Deceuninck-QuickStep on the way to the Emirates of the UAE, brought Joao Almeida a number of good results, from sixth place in the Tour of Italy to the national chronograph title.
He then made his debut with a World Tour win in the Tour of Poland, with two rounds and an overall final, and performed well in the road Europeans, finishing 14th in the distance race, following up on a good plan ahead of the road world championship starting on Sunday.
The victory immediately leaves him four seconds ahead of Mollema and six seconds over Hirschi in a five-stage race that includes time trialing, one of “his” specialties.
Here, for now, he gets another victory, as well as the yellow jersey, overall leader, youth leader and points leader on the day of Belgium’s 56th victory in 2021.
On Wednesday, the second of five stages connects Steinfort with Eschdorf for 186.1 km, ending again with a first category climb, the last of five at this level, and two more special categories.
Joao Almeida ‘delighted’ to win ‘difficult stage’ Tour of Luxembourg
Portugal’s Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was ‘happy’ to win the ‘tough stage’ of the Tour of Luxembourg by bike, the first to rise to the lead in race 81 since his ‘sprint’ triumph. .
“It was a difficult stage, fortunately, the team won. I am happy with that and have to thank all my teammates. This is ours,” said the 23-year-old athlete.
Almeida, 23, added his fifth win of the season after a 140km departure and arrival in Luxembourg City in 3:16.09 hours, ahead of second-placed Dutch Bauke Mollem (Trek-Segafredo) and Swiss Marc Hirschi (UAE Emirates), third.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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