Juan Ayuso has likened UAE Team Emirates-XRG to being inside a “dictatorship” as he lashed out at attempts to “damage his image” following his shock exit from the team.
Ayuso’s departure from UAE had been mooted for the season-end, but UAE decided to go public with the news on Monday evening in the middle of the 2025 Vuelta a Espana, where Ayuso is competing for them as co-leader.
UAE stated that they made their decision over Ayuso following “differences in the vision of development plans and in the alignment with the team’s sporting philosophy”.
In response, Ayuso released an initial, unremarkable statement, but was far more candid in front of the microphones ahead of Stage 10.
The Spaniard began: “I do not agree with the team’s statement.
“Yesterday, the statement came out around seven in the evening, and I was notified at half past six, when there were already journalists, with whom I have a good relationship, who had been told around lunchtime that the statement was going to be released.
“We had agreed that the statement would come out at the end of La Vuelta, so as not to affect anything related to the sporting side or any of my teammates. That it came out yesterday is a question you have to ask them. So sudden and without prior notice.
“I obviously know very well why they did it: to once again try to damage my image. As I say, I do not agree. They talk about values, unity… and those are also things I believe in.”
Reacting to his seeming lack of support for Almeida, Ayuso added: “Yesterday, they also took advantage of some unfortunate words from Almeida.
“I have spoken with Joao and he apologised to me, because he agrees with what happened. I want to help, yesterday I was not doing well, and he understood that.
‘People always like to make a big deal of it’ – Almeida opens up on Ayuso exit
Video credit: TNT Sports
“But of course, when there’s one sign of disrespect after another from the team’s management, it becomes difficult to build unity and want to be part of it.
“Out of respect for my teammates and the good relationship I’ve had with them all these years, I would like to finish this Vuelta a España in the best possible way. I’m also very glad that now you know about it too [my departure].
“Next year is going to be very nice, a new beginning, and I am happy.
“As I just said, I think my relationship with my team-mates – including Almeida, no matter what is being said – is good, and he deserves all the support I can give him, along with all the work of the other six members, and he deserves that I also contribute what I can contribute.
“I would have liked to finish well with the team, because that’s what we tried to achieve during the whole negotiation in the summer, to part ways on good terms, but sometimes it seems you can’t.
“It’s more like a unilateral dictatorship of power over you.
“As I said, yesterday I didn’t know anything until half past six. We had agreed that the statement would come out after La Vuelta, so as not to affect either me or any other team-mate. That everything was done yesterday in half an hour, without prior notice, I don’t understand.
“In the half hour I had, I said I did not agree with what was written in the statement, and the response I got was that the first draft of the statement was much worse and that I should be happy with it.”
12 stages remain for Ayuso as a UAE rider, with La Vuelta finishing in Madrid on September 14.
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