UAE questioned over time trial tyres as team explains Giro crashes

UAE have lost Adam Yates, Marc Soler and Jay Vine to the race outright after a series of crashes across the opening week, with António Morgado, Mikkel Bjerg and Igor Arrieta himself also hitting the ground at various points. Arrieta's stage 5 win in Potenza on Wednesday came after the Spaniard had slid out in the closing kilometres and missed a corner before riding through to catch and pass a similarly distressed Afonso Eulálio for the stage.

Thomas, Director of Racing at Netcompany Ineos, and Rowe, now a sports director at Decathlon CMA CGM after his retirement, flagged on Watts Occurring that UAE have been racing on Continental's GP 5000 TT tyres, normally reserved for time trial efforts, rather than the standard road tyres most teams use in wet conditions.

"UAE were riding TT tyres," Rowe said on the podcast. "We all know they're faster. They are faster. They always use them. They're the one team who use them under almost any circumstances. But they do have less grip. And the first guy down was a UAE guy. Lost both wheels."

Rowe was particularly pointed about the fact that the rain on stage 2, which produced the chaos that took Yates out of the race, had not come out of nowhere.

"Was the rain a surprise? Were you on the ground, was it in the forecast?" he asked Thomas. "I don't understand that decision. I really don't. A wet day and TT tyres, that seems like a strange call. And again, this is harsh to say, because half the team ended up on the deck."

Thomas was more willing to acknowledge that the issue was not unique to UAE.

"It's been a bit of a topic in our team," he said of Ineos's own approach. "We started using TT tyres, and then you use them more and more, and before you know it, it becomes standard. It's definitely something to consider, especially in Bulgaria, not knowing exactly how the roads are."

The technical distinction is significant. Standard road tyres balance speed, grip and durability across different conditions. TT tyres are built purely for speed, with narrower profiles, higher pressures, smoother surfaces and minimal tread. The trade-off works in dry conditions; in the wet, the lack of tread channel means water sits between the rubber and the tarmac. Grip suffers, and crashes become more likely.

"This is normal, especially on days when it has barely stopped raining all day." Marco Marcato stated to In De Leiderstrui. "If it hasn't rained in Southern Italy for a long time and then it suddenly rains heavily, the asphalt here is very slippery. We also warned the riders about this during the meeting this morning, that the asphalt in this region can be extra slippery."