“Ayuso has the mind of a leader” – Bruyneel and Martin dissect Ayuso’s Vuelta capitulation

Stage 6 of the 2025 Vuelta a España delivered the kind of surprise that defines a grand tour: a dominant breakaway performance, a new race leader, and the sudden collapse of one of cycling’s brightest young stars. Jay Vine of UAE Team Emirates – XRG seized the day with a solo victory in Andorra, while Torstein Træen rode into the red jersey. Behind them, Jonas Vingegaard looked serene, João Almeida showed he’s ready for the fight, and Juan Ayuso’s general classification challenge imploded. Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin dissected it all on The Move podcast, where they review all the important details from stage 6.

From the moment the breakaway formed, Vine was the rider to watch. “Yeah, it was obvious Jay Vine was going to win this stage from like 10 minutes into the breakaway,” one rider reportedly told the commentators. Martin explained, “He just pretty impressively formulaically just drops everybody, rides away in classic Jay Vine style.”

Bruyneel noted how deliberate it all seemed: “There was obviously a reason why he lost already so much time in the first few stages. I would say probably on purpose… He was very, very far down in GC. So that was definitely the plan for him to go in breaks. Worked out well. I mean, the Vuelta is his race. This is where he wins stages.”

Indeed, Vine has made the Vuelta his hunting ground. “It’s his third career Vuelta win,” Martin recalled. “Two in three stages in 2022. And then he crashed out afterwards.” Vine’s victory now gives UAE back-to-back stage wins, following the team time trial, and secures his status as one of the peloton’s most reliable mountain stage hunters.

If Vine’s win was expected, the sight of Torstein Træen taking second on the day and inheriting the leader’s jersey was a genuine highlight. Bruyneel praised the Norwegian’s story: “Great reward for him… He’s actually a recovering testicular cancer patient. To see him now in the lead of a grand tour is just amazing.” Martin added context: “He was kind of quietly racking up these results. Wins the Queen stage at the Tour of Switzerland last year. And now he’s in red at the Vuelta. That’s huge.”

Yet the GC battle was where most of the intrigue lay. Vingegaard, as ever, was measured. “Visma in my opinion looked really strong, the strongest team by far,” Bruyneel observed. “Jonas looked amazing. Never under pressure. Looked comfortable.” But he also wondered if the Dane had actually been conservative: “Did he really try hard or was he being conservative, knowing the Vuelta is very long?”

João Almeida, by contrast, turned a difficult situation into another reminder of his durability. “In true Almeida fashion just paces himself back up,” Martin said of the Portuguese rider, who lost contact before clawing back. Bruyneel agreed: “Today was a great climb for Almeida. It was tempo, hard but not super steep. It was an Almeida climb, and he looked good.”

But the big headline was Juan Ayuso’s collapse. Once touted as UAE’s co-leader, Ayuso’s pre-race warning that he was underprepared proved accurate. “He didn’t prepare for this grand tour like he had prepared for other grand tours,” Bruyneel said. “He decided late, at the request of his team. Today was clear that he doesn’t have the form to be in the front of the Vuelta.”

The analysis went deeper into Ayuso’s personality and future. “What I do see of Ayuso is that he always has the mind of a leader,” Bruyneel remarked. “It’s about him. I rarely hear him talk about teammates or about the team. It’s always about what he did, or what he didn’t do, and if he felt great, or if he didn’t feel great.”

Martin pointed out the concerning optics: “They were asking him, ‘It’s a great day for the team,’ and he says, ‘Oh, well, I don’t know what happened. Who won?’ That’s concerning to me.” For Bruyneel, this attitude raised doubts: “Any rider on a team, even if you’re dropped, you’d be interested to know if your teammate wins. He just was not interested.”

The larger question is what role Ayuso can play going forward. Bruyneel was blunt: “He should not be at this moment the leader of UAE in any of the grand tours. I think right now he should focus on one-week tours, which he’s great at. He has amazing qualities in week-long stage races, but not as a grand tour leader yet.”

Even so, Ayuso’s talent is undeniable, and his career remains a work in progress. “As a 19-year-old he came into the Vuelta and finished third,” Bruyneel reminded listeners. “That was spectacular. But it has not been confirmed since. He abandoned the Tour last year, abandoned the Giro this year, and now he’s definitely not going to be on the podium at the Vuelta.”

Looking ahead, both analysts agreed Ayuso has an opportunity to redefine his role in this race. “He has the opportunity now to show that he can be a great teammate,” Bruyneel said. “Because he’s not sick, he’s not injured, and he showed great form yesterday in the team time trial. An Ayuso who is at 80% can still be very valuable for UAE.”

The contrast between Vine’s team-first success and Ayuso’s struggles framed the day for UAE. “That’s the funny thing about this Vuelta,” Martin said. “UAE has won back-to-back stages, one of their leaders is out of the GC, and everyone thinks they’re the underdogs. But they’re winning stages, and the atmosphere must be amazing.”

As for the broader GC race, Bruyneel remains convinced Vingegaard holds the upper hand: “He is the best rider in this race. He is the best climber in this race. So I’m gonna go for him.” Martin, however, sees Almeida as a danger: “If you think you have an advantage on someone like João, you have to press it. Because if you wait and he gets better, you could regret it.”

In Bruyneel’s words, “It’s slowly heating up. It’s not so boring—it’s a slow boil. But I’m excited to see how this plays out.”