Who is the most successful male GC rider this year? It’s not Remco Evenepoel, who’s yet to win a stage race in 2025, nor Jonas Vingegaard, who has only won the Volta ao Algarve, although both of whom have been affected by injury. Simon Yates won the Giro d’Italia, but it’s not him. It’s not even Tadej Pogačar, he of winning everything he can, who has won two WorldTour stage races this year - the UAE Tour and the Critérium du Dauphiné.
It’s João Almeida, Pogačar’s teammate at UAE Team Emirates-XRG, who has won Itzulia Basque Country, the Tour de Romandie, and the Tour de Suisse this season. Now, there are caveats there, there must be - the riders who have joined him on the podiums at these races have been Enric Mas and Max Schachmann at Itzulia, Lenny Martinez and UAE’s Jay Vine at Romandie, and Kévin Vaquelin and Oscar Onley at Suisse. While Almeida can only beat what is in front of him, none of these six rank inside the UCI top 10 ranking. Cycling’s GC ‘big four’ - Evenepoel, Vingegaard, Primož Roglič and Pogačar - were all absent from the podiums, and from the races, apart from Evenepoel at Romandie.
