Uijtdebroeks falls, Mas rises and Movistar tread water at Vuelta

Cian Uijtdebroeks was given a stay of execution when the commissaires made the late and unpublicised decision to extend the time limit on stage 4 of the Vuelta a España, but when he wheeled into Andorra La Vella on Tuesday afternoon, it was already clear that things couldn’t go on like this.

The Belgian injured his ankle in a crash on stage 2 to Manosque, but after illness forced him to abandon the Tour de France just six days in, he seemed determined to press on at the Vuelta come what may.

The short but brutally difficult leg through Andorra on Tuesday underlined the folly of that idea. When the race was split asunder on the opening climb of the Port d’Envalira, Uijtdebroeks was immediately distanced. He came home some 26 minutes down on winner Tadej Pogacar, his tears telling their own story. 

There was little surprise when Movistar released a communiqué on Wednesday morning to confirm the inevitable: Uijtdebroeks had abandoned the Vuelta.

At the start of stage 5 in Falset, Movistar sports director Chente García Acosta acknowledged that there was no point in prolonging Uijtdebroeks’ suffering after his ordeal in Andorra. His injury was not going to improve from here to Granada.

“The guy was gutted, which is only to be expected when you have to leave another Grand Tour,” García Acosta told Domestique. “He gave it his all yesterday to reach the finish line, but, well, we could see he was struggling a bit too much, so we’ve decided to take him out of the race.

“Cian was a really important member of the team because we knew that, with the way he was riding, he was going to be right up there in the overall standings. It’s a massive loss for the team.”

Uijtdebroeks was Movistar’s marquee signing last autumn, when they surprisingly extricated him from his contract with Visma | Lease a Bike. The idea was that Uijtdebroeks would lead Movistar’s Grand Tour challenge as part of a general reboot of the team, but illness in July and injury here have made for a complicated debut season. 

His best showing was a serviceable but unspectacular seventh at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, but García Acosta stressed that the 23-year-old was a long-term project for the team, with a contract that runs until the end of 2029.

“We have to support him, we have to stand by him,” García Acosta said. “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us to get him back to full fitness, and we have every confidence in him.

“Now we have to help him get through this period, which is obviously a tough time, pulling out of two Grand Tours. He’s not having an easy time of it, so we have to support him and ensure he becomes one of the team’s most important pillars. We need to work with him. He’s a young lad, 23 years old, so there’s time. It’s up to us to invest that time in making him the best rider he can be.”

On the day Uijtdebroeks, the future of the team, was forced out of the Vuelta, his teammate Enric Mas showed signs of turning back the clock. Mas has endured two trying seasons since he scored the fourth Vuelta podium finish of his career in 2024. Varicose veins surgery cut short his 2025 campaign, while he made no impression at this year’s Giro d’Italia. 

The Mallorcan showed signs of life with fifth overall at the Vuelta a Burgos earlier this month, and he impressed on Tuesday’s demanding leg in Andorra, coming home in the chasing group 2:39 behind the unassailable Tadej Pogacar. In the overall standings, Mas lies third, 3:32 off the Slovenian. 

“I wouldn’t say it’s a surprise because in Burgos we already saw he was good,” García Acosta said. “So this is sort of a continuation from Burgos. We’re just happy that he’s better than at the Giro, especially as he’s had a lot of bad luck over the last year and a half, with operations and crashes. Seeing him like this makes us very happy.”

Uijtdebroeks’ abandon means that Mas now carries the weight of Movistar’s GC challenge, and Eusebio Unzué’s team is under pressure to make an impact at the Vuelta after nondescript outings at the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France. And although the current WorldTour relegation cycle ends in 2028, they already find themselves looking nervously over their shoulders. 

Movistar’s selection came under the microscope before the race began at all due to the surprise omission of 2016 winner Nairo Quintana, who had planned to make his farewell to pro racing at this Vuelta. The Colombian spent eleven seasons across two spells at Movistar, but García Acosta admitted that there was little room for sentiment when it came to picking the eight for the Vuelta.

“Nairo has been a really important rider for us, and it was a difficult decision because we had to think about the team we were bringing to the Vuelta,” García Acosta said. 

“There’s the issue of the points and where we stand in the table, so it comes down to having not necessarily a more competitive team, but one that will pick up points. Personally, I would have liked him to have been there, but the circumstances are what they are.”