Portuguese Joao Almeida's surprise: Can the Giro de Rosa finish?

• Stage 7.Triplete de Démare in a stage with fans

2020 has been a strange year for the best team in the world, Deceuninck Quick Step.

He accumulates important misfortunes, such as the brutal fall of

in the Tour of Poland that almost cost him his life and that puts in doubt his ability to one day return to compete.

Also that of

in Lombardy, thrown off a cliff, thus cutting the progression of a historic season for the boy.

On a strictly competitive level, however,

squad

is experiencing a dream year.

On the Tour, the race that defines everything, he won three stages, one with

and two with

, who also ended the dictatorship of

, winning the green jersey.

Before his accident, Evenepoel scored the generals of San Juan, Algarve, Burgos and Poland and, of course, Alaphilippe will wear the rainbow jersey for the next 12 months.

This is how Deceuninck arrived at the Giro, with high spirits but with the fallen Jakobsen and Evenepoel in memory.

Because had it not been for their injuries, they would be the team leaders in the Italian event: the Dutch for the sprints and the Belgian for the general.

Lefevere has had to look for alternatives on the fly and, as almost always, he has done so successfully.

This Saturday, for the fifth day in a row, one of his boys will wear the pink jersey and it will be rare for him to lose it before this Sunday, when the arrival at Roccaraso will put a new order in the race.

The question that floats in the air is whether this boy, who goes by the name of

(Caldas da Rainha, Portugal, 1998) is a straw leader for this opening week or a man to keep in mind for the remainder of Giro, which is almost everything.

"The pink jersey makes me stronger every day," he warns, after a stage with arrival at the sprint won again by

- there are already three for the French - in which fans were formed that finally had no impact on the general .

From a strange country

Many things surprise Almeida, but especially his nationality.

Portugal is perhaps the country in Western Europe with the least cycling tradition.

In fact, he is the first Portuguese to lead the Giro and only the third to do so on a grand tour, after

in the 1976 Tour and

in the 1989 Tour. In the history of the Grande Boucle , Portugal have only achieved 12 stage victories with five different riders.

And in the world championships, he only adds one medal, the gold of

in the 2013 road event.

In recent times there have been some other proper names of certain relevance (

...) but none with the projection of Almeida.

His appearance in this Giro is unexpected because it is premature, but it is not an absolute surprise either.

Already in the Vuelta a Burgos he was third and perhaps he could have aspired higher had he not been at the service of Evenepoel, winner of the test, and he has also achieved great results in the Vuelta al Algarve (9th), the Tour de l'Ain (7th), the Giro de la Emilia (2nd) and the recent Coppi and Bartali Week (3rd).

And all of them in his first year as a professional, after having trained the last two seasons at the American Axeon, led by

, one of the most prolific youth teams in recent years (

...).

"We have the future of Portuguese cycling assured," said Acacio da Silva in the newspaper A Bola these days, the only cyclist who has given his country stage victories in the Giro, five in total.

With no leaders to work for, and with solvent teammates on the mountain like

and James Knox, the only limit for this great climber with good time trial skills will be his own strength.

Common sense dictates that it is impossible for him to end up fighting for the podium.

But who thought

was going to win the Tour?

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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