{"id":201734,"date":"2025-09-05T10:11:26","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T10:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=201734"},"modified":"2025-09-05T10:11:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T10:11:26","slug":"a-disrupted-week-ayuso-protests-and-vingegaard-in-red-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2025\/09\/05\/a-disrupted-week-ayuso-protests-and-vingegaard-in-red-again\/","title":{"rendered":"A Disrupted Week: Ayuso, Protests and Vingegaard in Red Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a week during which it was hard to remember that we were in the middle of the Vuelta Ciclista a Espa\u00f1a. First, Juan Ayuso broke his contract with UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG, labeled the team a \u201cdictatorship\u201d and then won his second stage of the race, and the team\u2019s fifth. The day before, the last 3km of the stage were canceled and the finish was neutralized, with no winner declared, because of a mass pro-Palestine protest. And, oh yes, race favorite Jonas Vingegaard (Visma\u2013Lease a Bike) recaptured the race leader\u2019s red jersey and said that he wants to hold on to it until the end of the race.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Vingegaard\u2019s leads his main GC rival, Jo\u00e3o Almeida (UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG), by 50 seconds, with Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) sitting in third, at 56 seconds. The race is nicely poised as the riders take on the two most difficult stages in the race on Friday and Saturday, with the fearsome Angliru (12.4km @ 8.8%, with\u00a0 gradients of up to 23.5%!), arguably the most difficult ascent in the sport, waiting at the end of Friday\u2019s stage 13.<\/p>\n

Ayuso! Ayuso! Ayuso!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In addition to branding his team a dictatorship, Ayuso also said that he would devote the rest of the race to helping team leader, Jo\u00e3o Almeida, win the GC. And he did, leading the peloton for five minutes on Wednesday\u2019s stage 11 before dropping back at the foot of the final climb. The next day, on Thursday\u2019s stage 12, he burst out of the peloton on the first of the stage\u2019s two categorized climbs, 109km from the finish, joined a massive 50+ rider breakaway, broke away from what remained of it and then beat Javier Romo (Movistar) to the finish line to prove what everyone already knew, that he is a terrific cyclist and will always put his own interests before those of the team.<\/p>\n

Though, apparently, if he is to be believed, he carried out his latest solo yo<\/em> (only me) with the team\u2019s blessings. Not only did he get valuable help from his indefatigable teammate Marc Soler, but he was advised in the finale by a sports director in his team car, who told him to let Romo do most of the work in the run to the line. Then he sat in back of the Movistar rider in the final kilometer and easily beat him to the line.<\/p>\n

“At 5 kilometers to the finish, I sat up a bit and Javi was getting nervous because he was looking at his first stage win in the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a,” said Ayuso, and confirmed that the advice from the team car was to hold back from pulling. “I was told from the car to play like this. This is not something that I really enjoy \u2013 to play a bit and not cooperate fully, but sometimes you have to play smart, and that’s what I did in the finale.”<\/p>\n

Romo was left banging his handlebars in frustration. I was annoyed,” he told Spanish media<\/a> at the finish. “Juan wasn’t just the strongest, he was the most intelligent. He almost didn’t want to work in the end.”<\/p>\n

Asked if he felt vindicated by his victory, Ayuso said, \u201cI don\u2019t know. I had to face unpleasant things in these last few days and talking on the bike with my legs is always the best answer. It wasn’t a message, but to be able to do it was important.”<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear that one of UAE\u2019s goals this year \u2013 and perhaps its primary goal in the Vuelta \u2013 is to break the record for team victories in a calendar year. That record, set by HTC-Colombia in 2009, stands at 85 wins. UAE\u2019s count after this latest win is now 78 victories. I have to wonder what the team would do in the Vuelta if the choice came down to breaking the record or having Almeida win the race without winning a single stage.<\/p>\n

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