Ayuso sets acrimonious UAE split aside to win again at Vuelta

Juan Ayuso simply can’t stay out of the headlines at the Vuelta a España. The Spaniard’s imminent departure from UAE Team Emirates-XRG has been the background noise to his race since Turin, and when the news was finally confirmed on Monday’s rest day, it looked as though his Vuelta was coming to an end.

The following morning in Sendaviva, Ayuso complained that he had been blindsided by the announcement, and he likened UAE’s management to a “dictatorship.” Yet that afternoon, he put in a sharp turn on behalf of João Almeida on the climb to Larra Belagua, a clear retort to the criticism he had received for going missing in action on the previous summit at Vadezcaray.

There are still question marks about Ayuso’s commitment to Almeida’s GC challenge at this Vuelta, but on Thursday, he was given the freedom to chase his second stage win of the race, and he responded to the challenge.

After joining the unwieldly break of 52 riders, Ayuso forged clear on the category 1 climb of Collada de Brenes, with Javier Romo (Movistar) joining him soon afterwards. They rode the final 25km of the stage together, and Ayuso was ordered from the UAE team car to indulge in a little brinkmanship as they approached the finish.

The strategy paid off. Romo led out the two-up sprint, and Ayuso duly unleashed a crisp finish to claim his second stage win of the race after his victory at Cerler last week.

“After such a hard day, you don’t know,” Ayuso said of the finale. “I had to play my cards. I was a bit nervous playing in the final kilometres. I told him that I had already won a stage, and he had to pull more if he wanted to arrive. I was told from the car to play like this. It’s not something I really enjoy, not cooperating fully. But sometimes you have to play smart.”

Despite the frissons within UAE throughout this race, there was harmony between Ayuso and his teammate Marc Soler in the break, with the Catalan delivering the turn that launched his winning attack.

Ayuso’s win brings UAE’s running tally for this Vuelta to five stage victories, while the squad has now won an eyewatering 78 races in 2025. It seems inevitable that they will overhaul HTC-Highroad’s mark of 85, set in 2009.

“I attacked at the hardest part of the climb and where there was tailwind instead of headwind,” Ayuso said. “Soler did an incredible job putting the pace and trying to take control of a break that was almost as big as a peloton. Thanks to him, the race was under control when I decided to go.”

Ayuso was on familiar terrain in the finale. As a promising junior, he raced in Cantabria – home region of UAE sports manager Matxin Joxean Fernandez – with the Bathco team.

“I know this finish quite well, it’s been a finish in junior races, so I knew how to time my sprint,” he said. “I spent two summers here as a junior, so it’s very nice to win here.”

Asked if the victory had lifted a weight from his shoulders after the very public falling out with UAE management, Ayuso insisted that his Vuelta had been a successful one, despite the early implosion of his GC ambitions. 

“The truth is that it’s been a very good Vuelta for us,” he said. “We have already won five stages, including a team time trial, which was a great win. Sporting controversies aside, it’s been a very good Vuelta. We still have Almeida up there and he can win the race.”

Currently 50 seconds down on red jersey Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike), Almeida will need Ayuso’s help if he is to win this Vuelta. The soap opera continues on the Angliru on Friday.