Neither João Almeida nor Juan Ayuso has had the ideal preparation for this year's Vuelta a España, but both are determined to set the record straight this August.
In the absence of Tadej Pogačar, the Spaniard and Portuguese racers are the two main leaders for UAE Team Emirates-XRG in the Spanish Grand Tour. The last time they raced together in the Vuelta in 2022, Ayuso finished third and Almeida claimed fourth.
Last year's Vuelta was not nearly so favourable to Almeida, however, who had to abandon with COVID-19, and his most recent Tour de France also ended badly with a crash at the end of the first week.
Ayuso, equally, has had a tough build-up with his abandon in the Giro d'Italia, only seeing him return to racing for just two days this summer, prior to taking part in his second Grand Tour of a single season for the first time in his career.
For both riders, in any case, they told reporters, the absence of Pogačar automatically renders the only man to beat the Slovenian in the 2022 and 2023 Tours de France the top contender for victory in Madrid. Even so, Almeida pointed out, a joint leadership can definitely have its advantages in a GC battle.
"Of course, Jonas is the favourite, he's won the Tour twice, he's one of the best two riders of his generation, but we're also strong," Almeida said. "If we have two cards to play, then we are stronger when you have only one."
Almeida's upbeat talk contrasted, however, with the uncertainty about his and Ayuso's condition. The Portuguese rider said recently that he has only trained properly at full strength for 2.5 weeks, which raises the question of whether that will be sufficient.
"Let's find out," he said with a slight smile. "I'm feeling good on the bike, I think I'm ready, but we'll see day by day."
Ayuso repeatedly pointed to the irregularity of his build-up and the fact that he was a last-minute call-up to make it clear that he, too, is having something of a voyage into the unknown. That's even more the case given he has never done two Grand Tours in a single season before.
"This is the first time I haven't specifically prepared for a Grand Tour, and the first time I'm starting two in one year," Ayuso said. "So it's been a strange build-up. I need to see how I am doing in the race, then we'll see. If I'm not great, I'll help João, assuming he's doing well."
"Andorra and the day after [stages 6 and 7, the first stages in the Pyrenees] will show how I have to race the Vuelta."
"It's hard doing two Grand Tours because you need a lot of mental energy, but personally I like it because these are my favourite races," Almeida added. "The second one is always much harder, particularly as I've not had much time to do much proper preparation. But it's my type of race."
A sense of improvisation in the case of both riders was all but unmissable, with questions like the team time trial and preparation for it sparking the admission from Ayuso that he had begun specific training for stage 5's TTT only on Thursday morning.
Equally, the finer details of the strategic plan for how to beat Vingegaard in the Vuelta had yet to be discussed, he said, given management had only recently arrived in the team hotel.
But in any case, Ayuso insisted, when it came to the expectations as to who would be controlling the race, at least initially, that lay with the top favourite, Jonas Vingegaard,
"He's got the responsibility, he's got a great team, so the pressure and the weight of the race are all on him and on what he does," Ayuso said.
"We're favourites, but he's the favourite," Almeida helpfully added.
While much has been made by the media of the potential for internal rivalry between the two, there was little hint of that in their joint press conference, with Almeida and Ayuso happily taking turns on questions without any sense of strain.
They also batted away the idea that one Italian journalist put to them, that the Vuelta tended to be won and lost in the first week, pointing at the Angliru as a crunch stage in week 2.
"That's the key to the race," Ayuso said. "Although keys can sometimes be where you least expect them," Almeida then pointed out, "so we'll have to see."
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