'It's been a strange day' - Ayuso works for Almeida amid UAE management clash

All eyes were on Juan Ayuso on stage 10 of the Vuelta a España in the wake of his increasingly fractious departure from UAE Team Emirates-XRG. The squad announced on Monday’s rest day that Ayuso would leave the team at season’s end, but the rider himself took exception with both the tone and the timing of the statement.

At the start in Sendavia on Tuesday morning, Ayuso added fuel to the flames by describing UAE management as a “dictatorship” and at that point, one wondered how much longer the Spaniard could continue in the race.

But continue he did, and on the final climb to Larra Belagua, Ayuso popped up at the head of the peloton, putting in a short but rasping turn on behalf of João Almeida before swinging off with a little under 7km still to race after teammate Mikkel Bjerg had dropped back from the break.

Ayuso’s effort helped to break up the race, with red jersey Torstein Traeen (Bahrain Victorious) among those distanced. Almeida launched a series of accelerations later on the ascent, but he was unable to put new race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) in difficulty, and he came home alongside the Dane.

After more or less grinding to a halt after his stint of pace-making, Ayuso reached the summit a little over 13 minutes down on the day’s winner, his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammate Jay Vine.

“It’s been a strange day due to the circumstances, but I’m happy that the team – and Jay Vine, who is a good friend of mine – was able to win another stage,” Ayuso told Eurosport at the finish.

“Without a doubt, I was much better than I was the day before the rest day. It was nice to be able to push and I think we rode as the team. I rode until we caught up to Mikkel and I think it went pretty well for us.”

Ayuso’s Vuelta has been a decidedly mixed one. He set out ostensibly as UAE’s co-leader with Almeida, but he claimed his GC aspirations had been a media invention when he lost ground at Pal on stage 6. He won at Cerler the following day but then he drew criticism for losing 22 minutes without helping Almeida at Valdezcaray on stage 9.

Speaking after stage 10, Ayuso conceded that the negotiations over his release from UAE had been something of a distraction ahead of the Vuelta.

“It’s difficult, and for that reason as well I’m not doing the GC,” Ayuso said. “Of course, it’s all come now, but this has been going on for two months. It’s difficult, but I’m happy that everything’s come out in the open. Next year, I’m going to have much more fun competing.”

Despite his bracing criticism of UAE management on Tuesday morning, Ayuso also indicated that he intended to remain the Vuelta until Madrid.

“It would be great if Almeida could win. With Tadej’s Tour [in 2024 – ed.], I had to pull out and I couldn’t celebrate in Paris, so it would be nice to be in Madrid,” said Ayuso, who dismissed the idea that he had considered abandoning the race.

“No, never. I mean, it’s a discussion that’s come from the press. The other day I wasn’t feeling well and when you don’t feel well you can’t really help. Today I was feeling much better. João told me to start really hard from the bottom and that’s what we did.”

Almeida, for his part, was unable to trouble Vingegaard with his repeated attacks, and he came home alongside the Dane, 1:05 down on Vine. In the overall standings, Almeida now lies third overall, still 38 seconds behind the favourite Vingegaard.

“I was feeling good again today,” Almeida told Eurosport. “We had nothing to lose. We are here to try to win. We need to try and tomorrow is another day.

“We said if I felt good, we’d try on the final climb. We gave everything we have so it is what it is. I was trying to make the race hard. But it was also not super steep to make the difference, so I just took the wheel and wanted to arrive to the finish line.”