{"id":145759,"date":"2025-09-18T17:24:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T17:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/145759\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T17:24:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T17:24:13","slug":"winning-a-grand-tour-with-someone-other-than-pogacar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/145759\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWinning a grand tour with someone other than Pogacar\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although UAE Team Emirates-XRG didn\u2019t win the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, the team could rightly be called the big dominator of the race. In addition to second place in the general classifications, they took no fewer than seven stage wins, the mountains classification, and the team classification. Still, UAE didn\u2019t always come across as a collective firmly backing their leader Jo\u00e3o Almeida<\/a>, according to former rider Johan Bruyneel<\/a>.In the podcast The Move<\/a>, he shared his thoughts on UAE Team Emirates-XRG\u2019s riding style in the recent Vuelta, which was ultimately won by Jonas Vingegaard<\/a> (Visma | Lease a Bike), after Almeida was unable to seriously trouble the Dane in the final week. \u201cA different tactic wouldn\u2019t have changed the outcome in my view,\u201d Bruyneel began his analysis.<\/p>\n

He did acknowledge, however, that UAE\u2019s performance hardly looked like a well-oiled machine. \u201cIt just didn\u2019t look good. One leader and all these so-called free agents, doing their own thing chasing stage wins, and not being there when they were needed. But would it have made a difference? I\u2019d say no,\u201d he concluded firmly.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo. <\/p>\n

\"juan-ayuso\"\/<\/p>\n

Juan Ayuso mainly pursued his self-interest in the Vuelta.<\/p>\n

Bruyneel points to UAE\u2019s lack of ambition: \u201cThat would have been fantastic\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruyneel believes UAE\u2019s disjointed racing stemmed from a lack of belief that they could actually win the overall victory. \u201cWe sit here analyzing everything from our screens, but the team knows exactly what power numbers their riders can put out. They may have known all along that it would be extremely difficult for Almeida to drop Vingegaard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Bruyneel was disappointed that the multi-million squad didn\u2019t fully commit to the overall win. \u201cIn UAE\u2019s case, why bother with stage wins and the mountains jersey? Let\u2019s try to win a grand tour with someone other than Tadej Pogacar. That would have been fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, though, it was still a Vuelta that any other team would have gladly signed for beforehand. \u201cIn the end, it was a very good Vuelta for them,\u201d said Bruyneel. \u201cSeven stages, second overall, and the mountains jersey. They are by far the best team in professional cycling right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo. <\/p>\n

\"joao-almeida\"\/<\/p>\n

Jo\u00e3o Almeida did not manage to crack Vingegaard in the final week of the Vuelta.<\/p>\n

Bruyneel: \u201cIt\u2019s often simpler than we think\u201d\u201cIn the end, the criticism isn\u2019t so much about the team\u2019s tactics, but more about the behavior of some riders,\u201d Bruyneel clarified. \u201cWe could only guess whether the tactic was A, but some riders went with B. I\u2019d say especially in the beginning there was some disagreement with Juan Ayuso. But that mostly played out off the bike, with that press release.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Bruyneel noted that in the last and decisive mountain stage finishing on the Bola del Mundo, everyone was on the same page. \u201cAlthough Ayuso initially chased stage wins and wasn\u2019t there when he was needed, that wasn\u2019t the case in stage 20. They were all there and all did what was expected of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd yet, there was nothing to be done against Jonas\u2026 Could they have done things differently in earlier stages?\u201d Bruyneel doubts it would have made a difference. \u201cWe always talk about tactics and strategies here, but often it\u2019s much simpler than we think. You just need to have the legs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although UAE Team Emirates-XRG didn\u2019t win the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, the team could rightly be called the big…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-145759","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}