Jonas Vingegaard looked casual while he slipped back into the red jersey at the top of the Larra-Belagua but it was a dramatic day at the Vuelta a España for UAE Team Emirates as Jay Vine, the mountains classification leader, won the 10th stage and his teammate Juan Ayuso accused the team’s management of acting “like a dictatorship”.
Vine took his second stage win, the fourth of the race for UAE, with a well-timed attack on the last climb to distance his final challenger left in the breakaway, Pablo Castrillo. The Australian had originally called off plans to go for a stage win as the peloton attacked the hilly route at pace – with average speeds regularly topping 49km/h – but as the race unfolded an opportunity arose for Vine to bridge over to the day’s breakaway group and he took it.
Lotto’s Alec Segaert later attacked from that pack of leaders at the 20km banner, but was caught and passed on the way up Larra-Belagua by the nine remaining riders. As the pretenders fell away on a 6.3% average gradient, Castrillo (Movistar) and Vine were left to battle it out. It always looked like Vine would have too much for Castrillo and so it proved when he powered away on a chicane with 5km to go.
Vine’s victory put a positive slant on a day that began with tumultuous scenes at the start as Ayuso hit out at UAE management. The Spanish rider described their decision to send out a press release on Monday’s rest day – confirming that the 22-year-old would be ending his contract three years early – as “like a dictatorship and an exercise of power over me”.
Ayuso told Spanish reporters: “We’d made an agreement that it would come out after the Vuelta was over, so it wouldn’t affect things in the team at all on a sporting level during the race and not to affect any of the riders. I think that it’s clear why they’ve done it, to try and harm my image again.”
Ayuso had said riding for the team would be “pointless” after stage nine on Sunday, but put in a strong effort on the final climb as the team leader, João Almeida, tried push the other general classification contenders out of their comfort zones.
Almeida is now third overall, only 12 seconds behind Norway’s Torstein Træen (Bahrain-Victorious), who lost the overall lead to Vingegaard after falling off the back of the GC group with 6km to go. Tom Pidcock is only 20 seconds behind Almeida – who told the Briton to “grow some balls” after a ding-dong ride on stage nine – with the former Ineos man now fourth in the GC standings.
Pidcock looked comfortable going up Larra-Belagua, maintaining the form he showed before Monday’s rest day. “I backed up my ride from the other day and the more I do that, the more confidence I’m going to have,” said the Q36.5 Pro Cycling team leader.
The double Olympic mountain bike gold medallist confirmed that he had received an apology from Almeida over their angry exchange, saying: “I don’t take anything to heart, it was in the heat of the moment. I’ve also said stuff to people in the past, so there’s no hard feelings.”
Pidcock has yet to put together a genuine challenge for a Grand Tour title, but has previously performed strongly at the Tour de France, winning a stage in 2022. Asked about his form, he said: “I feel super good. After a performance like I did on Sunday it fills you with confidence. The more that happens the better I’ll feel.”
Vingegaard described Pidcock as a “very strong” rival for the GC and the Dane appeared pleased with the low-key way he was able to retake the red jersey. With the media focus currently elsewhere in the peloton, the Visma-Lease a bike rider now faces a tough week of climbing, including the famous L’Angliru climb on stage 13, with a target on his back.
“Basically every day this week is going to be a fight for GC,” Vingegaard said at the finish line. “You need to choose your days and then go for it. That’s what we did.”
