Juan Ayuso will not ride the Vuelta a España, with Adam Yates and João Almeida setting out from Lisbon on Saturday as the confirmed leaders of a powerful UAE Team Emirates.
Talented Mexican Isaac del Toro will make his Grand Tour debut, while Jay Vine and Brandon McNulty also feature in the strong team of eight riders.
As had previously been announced, Tadej Pogačar will not line out at the Vuelta. The winner of the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France is expected to return to action at the Grand Prix de Québec in September ahead of his tilt at the World Championships in Zurich.
Ayuso, who placed third in the race on his debut two years ago, had hoped to ride the Vuelta after he abandoned the Tour with COVID-19, though UAE Team Emirates manager Mauro Gianetti had always indicated that the Spaniard would not feature in the line-up for the final Grand Tour of the season and was always described as a reserve by the team.
Vuelta director Javier Guillén went as far as to make a public call for UAE to include Ayuso in their squad, but it was all to no avail. After riding the road race at the Paris 2024 Olympics, Ayuso ia now enhjoying a break and his next outing is likely to be in Canada next month.
“After the Tour finished, my first thought was, naturally, for the Vuelta. Obviously, it's a race that is very close to my heart and I have special memories from there,” Ayuso told AS.
“Honestly, in the following weeks since the Tour, I never got back to my level. Seeing how I felt in training, the team and I talked and decided it was better to focus on the original plan which was to go to the Olympics and then race in Canada in September. It was something mutual and in our best interest not only for this year, but also for the future.”
Ayuso’s Tour abandon and his apparent tensions with Almeida on the Col du Galibier stage had led to reports that the 21-year-old might leave UAE before the end of his contract, which expires in 2028.
UAE Team Emirates sports manager Matxin Joxean Fernandez insisted, however, that Ayuso was firmly part of his team’s plans going forward.
“Juan is an asset for us, and we didn't want to force him when he’s not at 100%. We also want to preserve him for the future,” Matxin told AS.
Ayuso was UAE’s best-placed rider at the past two editions of the Vuelta, making history in 2022 when he finished on the podium as a teenager and then taking fourth overall last year.
Almeida and Yates, who placed fourth and sixth overall at this year’s Tour, will lead UAE at the Vuelta. The pair already dovetailed neatly at the Tour de Suisse in June, where Yates claimed overall victory ahead of his teammate in a race where they claimed two stages apiece.
“Myself and João had a good partnership going at Suisse and I think if we’re both in top shape or either one of us is in contention we’ll be ready to make the best of it,” Yates said.
“The team we have here is quality and I think and hope we’ll be fighting for big results over the next weeks.”
Almeida will be the star attraction this weekend when the Vuelta starts from his native Portugal for the first time since 1997.
“Having the support from home crowds and my family and friends will be special and maybe a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Almeida.
The line-up is completed by Del Toro, McNulty, Vine, Filippo Baroncini, Marc Soler and Pavel Sivakov.
Del Toro has been one of the season’s most impressive neo-professionals and the Mexican rode strongly at Itzulia Basque Country and again at the Tour de Suisse.
McNulty is riding his first Grand Tour of the season having focused squarely on the Paris 2024 Olympics earlier in the summer, while Vine is included after an injury-blighted season.
The Australian suffered a broken vertebrae in the mass crash at Itzulia Basque Country, but he returned to competition at the Vuelta a Burgos last week and won the individual time trial.
"All round it’s an exciting team with aspirations of achieving big things," Matxin said of a squad that can emulate Visma-Lease a Bike in 2023 by achieving a clean sweep of Grand Tours.
The Vuelta gets under way in Lisbon on Saturday with a 12km individual time trial and it concludes in Madrid on September 8.
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