And UAE Team Emirates-XRG win again! What a Vuelta a España the all-conquering, versatile, collection of galáticos are having. Jay Vine, who wasn’t even meant to be here, has won two stages – his second being on stage 10 – and has a convincing lead in the King of the Mountains classification that he won last year; João Almeida is third in the GC, 38 seconds adrift of Jonas Vingegaard who is once again leading the race after Torstein Træen ceded time on the 10th stage; Juan Ayuso, Spain’s biggest star, took a barnstorming victory on stage seven to Cerler; and as a group of eight they won the team time trial on stage five. United in their search for excellence, or some marketing spiel like that you can imagine team staff saying.
Problem is, it’s not a happy and united family, is it? Those wins are taking place in the background, and in the foreground is a tense and fraught team. Not even the near daily success can mask over what has been and continues to be a situation where team-mates prefer to lose the suffix ‘mate’, and instead ride purely for themselves.
Overnight came the news that Ayuso was indeed departing UAE at the end of the season, with Lidl-Trek reportedly set to be his new employers. If it felt weird that communication came in the middle of a Grand Tour, then Ayuso also found it weird. In an extraordinary interview with Spanish journalists at the start of stage 10, Ayuso – stood right next to the team’s press officer – claimed that he only had 30 minutes notice of the announcement, adding that the team had done it “to damage my image once more” and that it was “another case of a lack of respect from the team.” Just to hammer home his dissatisfaction, he added: "We have tried to finish [their relationship] well, but it seems that it is impossible when it comes to a dictatorship.” Ouch. To add to UAE’s nightmarish morning of negative headlines, Almeida told the press that he wanted Ayuso to do what is best for him “as a teammate, but not as a, I wouldn’t say close friend…” Lads, what happened to all that media training?!
All smiles at the start of stage 10 (Image: ASO)
So onto the racing where UAE can show off their mega talent, and let their pedalling do the talking. Only problem with that is that the pedalling has been doing a lot of the negative talking, with Almeida complaining after stage nine that none of his team-mates had been helping him. At least this time Ayuso – who claimed in his interview he had a good relationship with Almeida, contradicting the Portuguese – did pull for Almeida in the closing part of stage 10. So, too, did Mikkel Bjerg who dropped back from the break to pace Almeida up the climb. It looked like everyone – finally! – was on the same hymn sheet. Must. Work. For. GC. Leader. One could imagine a robotic voice repeating itself through the team's radios.
But not Vine's headset. Despite having already won one stage, Vine couldn’t park his own ambitions and assist Almeida up the steepest gradients to Belagua. He was insistent that this was another day for him. “Winning is so, so hard and it’s an incredible feeling when it happens,” the Australian said.
What’s also hard is attempting to win a Grand Tour against Jonas Vingegaard with so few loyal team-mates. The odds are low that Ayuso will set off in pursuit of more personal stage glory later this week, especially with the famous ascents of the Angliru and Farrapona. What Spanish climber wouldn’t want to win up those mythical mountains? The odds are also low that Vine will continue to ride a one-man race in pursuit of the KOM jersey, and possibly another stage win. Leaving Almeida to do most of it alone (sorry, Marc Soler).
Without Tadej Pogačar, UAE Team Emirates-XRG don’t have any problems picking up wins from elsewhere. They’re on 77 for the season, only four shy of last year’s total. But without Tadej Pogačar, there is no coherence, no unity, no structure at UAE Team Emirates-XRG. It’s a collection of individuals working towards their own goals. The parallels with Movistar’s famous implosions and Box Office dramas are everywhere. At least it’s making an otherwise sterile race entertaining.
