UAE Team Emirates-XRG added to their already huge tally of victories for the 2025 season, taking out the stage 5 team time trial of the Vuelta a España in Figueres for win number 74 of the season, posting a time of 25:26 over 24.1 kilometres.
Jonas Vingegaard moved back into the red leader's jersey after his Visma-Lease a Bike team finished second on the stage, eight seconds behind UAE.
Meanwhile, Lidl-Trek, who held the quickest time for most of the day, faded to third, nine seconds down on the stage winners.
With the stage win by his team, Juan Ayuso climbed into second place overall, tied on the same time with teammate João Almeida, eight seconds down on Vingegaard.
"We knew we would be fighting for the win, but there’s a lot of good teams here and we need to be realistic," Almeida said. "I think we did a really perfect job and we deserve it as well.
"I think it's good to give us confidence as well. But, of course, the gaps are small. It doesn't really mean anything, but it's a good start."
David Gaudu's Groupama-FDJ squad narrowly avoided two stopped police motorbikes while hurtling toward the finish, and the 24-second deficit meant the Frenchman lost his hold on the race lead.
Gaudu dropped to sixth in the GC standings, 16 seconds behind Vingegaard.
How it unfolded
The team time trial provided another chance for the overall Vuelta a España contenders to gain time, with a 24.1-kilometre, almost completely flat test.
Lotto was the first team down the ramp and set a surprisingly good time, holding off Intermaché-Wanty, Alpecin-Deceuninck, Picnic-PostNL and Cofidis.
Lidl-Trek were on track to take the fastest time, going 13 seconds faster at the second check. However, a mistake from Carlos Verona in a turn saw him drop off prematurely. Julien Bernard followed shortly after, leaving six men to complete the final 8.7km.
Even with the hiccups, Lidl-Trek moved into the hot seat with a time 18 seconds quicker than Lotto's.
Speaking of hiccups, Israel-Premier Tech were interrupted by a group protesting Israel's war on Gaza, with several of the riders forced to hit the brakes. That meant the team came through the first check with the slowest time. They made up some ground by the finish, but were fourth from last at the line.
Ineos Grenadiers were next to set the fastest time at the intermediate checks, going almost 10 seconds faster at the first timing after 7.8km. However, they faded over the second half and came through the line seven seconds slower than Lidl-Trek.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe were second-fastest at the first check but suffered a crash, with Matteo Sobrero going down hard. They finished just over three seconds behind Lidl-Trek.
UAE Team Emirates came through the first check ahead of Visma-Lease a Bike and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, but by the second check, they had faded to third best, four seconds down.
Heading into the finish, Marc Soler was fighting to hold onto the wheels as the fourth man, UAE Team Emirates-XRG did enough to unseat Lidl-Trek by nine seconds.
Visma-Lease a Bike lost a lot of ground by the second check, coming through 17 seconds slower than Lidl-Trek. However, the team really picked up the pace in the final section and came to the line with five riders only eight seconds down on UAE.
Because Vingegaard had a 16-second advantage over Juan Ayuso and João Almeida at the start of the day, he was in the virtual lead with only Groupama-FDJ left to finish.
The French team were 10 seconds behind Visma at the second check but faded in the finale and Gaudu dropped out of the race lead.
Results
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