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The last time a Spaniard who seemed destined to be his team’s GC leader at the Giro d’Italia, was beaten by a Latin American teammate was in 2019 when Richard Carapaz claimed Ecuador’s first Grand Tour win and Mikel Landa had to settle for fourth. That was in the heyday of a number of seasons where the tensions between Movistar’s triumvirate of Landa, Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde, reached a boiling point. Issues which Carapaz managed to avoid and in doing so that year clinched the squad’s last overall victory at a Grand Tour in its illustrious history, which spans back to when it was a true super team under the guise of Banesto, when Miguel Induráin stomped his way through five Tour de France wins on the trot. The recurring problems with who to back at Grand Tours plagued Movistar in the latter half of the 2010s, weakening their overall chances, and from the outside, damaged their image, which ultimately made it difficult to sign the next crop of talent from the Spanish-speaking world.
One of the teams they seem to have lost out in signing those talents to is UAE Team Emirates-XRG — the super team of the last couple of years, who boast an abundance of Grand Tour talent through the likes of Tadej Pogačar, Adam Yates, João Almeida, Juan Ayuso and now Isaac del Toro. It’s the latter two who sit in first and second place on the overall classification as the Giro enters its second rest day, after Del Toro’s barnstorming performance on stage nine, where he was the strongest rider of the day, ultimately finishing second to Wout van Aert (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) but still finding himself in the maglia rosa with a gap of 1:13 ahead of his teammate, Ayuso.
Two days earlier on the race’s first summit finish, the hierarchy seemed to be set: Juan Ayuso took his first Grand Tour stage win at Tagliacozzo. But who was next across the line? Del Toro. Are they the two strongest riders in the race? At the moment it looks like it. What a luxurious position to be in for UAE. If they can manage any difficulties that may arise from having two talented, ambitious teammates both in with a chance of taking their first Grand Tour overall win then they should be retaining the maglia rosa after Pogačar’s win last year. It may not be a big if but it is certainly still something to consider. What if one were to get into difficulty on a mountain stage, would the other be asked to wait?
Del Toro on the final climb of stage nine (Image: RCS)
On evidence so far from this Giro, the UAE sports directors are happy to let ‘the road decide’ but there may be a point where this isn’t possible and one will have to compromise their GC chances for the good of the team’s overall ambitions. Both are very young to be fighting for Grand Tour overall success. Juan Ayuso may seem like he’s been around for a while thanks to a podium at the Vuelta a España but he is only 22. He has played second fiddle a number of times already in his short career and this Giro seemed destined to be his chance to prove himself in a team of seasoned winners — he has acted as the apprentice to Pogačar and Almeida. At 21, Del Toro is even younger. They are not only 1-2 on the pink jersey classification but also in the white young rider’s leaderboard. On any other team, they would be outright leaders but at UAE in 2025, in what is becoming the greatest team the sport has ever seen, they are two of a number of contenders. The two youngsters are not even the team’s only options at this Giro. Brandon McNulty and Adam Yates also sit in eighth and ninth on GC respectively and are within a minute of Ayuso. A podium finisher at the Tour, Yates is a proven performer in the third week of a Grand Tour and McNulty is showing that he is at a career-best level. It will be fascinating to see how it will play out.
Carapaz, Quintana and Landa all left Movistar earlier than what might have been expected, all to pastures new and the promise of sole GC backing from their new teams. With pre-race favourite Primož Roglič suffering a nightmare of a day on the strade bianche, the race could get a whole lot more aggressive as he looks to find back the time he lost in the dust in Tuscany. How UAE Team Emirates-XRG handle the next week could shape more than just this Giro d’Italia but the careers of their young superstars for many years to come.
