“Del Toro is the chosen one” – But can Juan Ayuso turn the tables on the Maglia Rosa?

As the Giro d’Italia enters Stage 13, all eyes are not just on who might win, but how UAE Team Emirates – XRG will navigate a delicate internal dilemma. The team, undeniably the strongest in the race, finds itself in a privileged yet increasingly precarious position.

Juan Ayuso was expected to lead the charge for pink. But heading into today’s stage, it is 22-year-old Mexican sensation Isaac del Toro who holds the maglia rosa, with Ayuso trailing by just over 30 seconds. On paper, it looks manageable. In reality, it’s a strategic powder keg.

Del Toro has looked composed, powerful, and opportunistic, notably attacking on the gravel stage to Siena just as Ayuso hit the deck and required stitches in his knee. While Del Toro later claimed he mistook Egan Bernal’s white jersey for Ayuso’s, the optics weren’t lost on fans or pundits.

In his latest Wielerflits column, Belgian journalist Hugo Coorevits captures the tension best: “The battle unfolds this time without [Tadej] Pogacar… yet it was an Instagram post by the same Pogacar that caught my attention.” The post, an image of Pogacar sipping coffee and eyeing Del Toro, was captioned simply: “Looking at the future, enjoy the pink journey.” Coorevits saw it for what it was: a public endorsement of Del Toro, with Ayuso conspicuously absent from the sentiment.

It’s not just cryptic Instagram posts fuelling the fire. As Coorevits notes, the anonymous social media account ‘mou’, a vocal Pogacar disciple, continues to stoke tensions from the shadows. For ‘mou’, Del Toro is the chosen one, while Ayuso is targeted with vitriol. “Ayuso the rat,” the account often sneers, an unfair characterisation that diverges dramatically from the rider Coorevits met at the 2023 Vuelta: “A simple, quiet and well-mannered twenty-something who was anything but arrogant.”

The real issue may lie not in personality clashes, but in institutional structure. Ayuso, now 22, signed a long-term contract with UAE through 2028 — without an agent, relying instead on his father. What once looked like a bold commitment now seems more like a gilded cage. “He has committed himself for a long time in an environment that feels increasingly uncomfortable for him,” Coorevits writes.

The parallels with the 2023 Vuelta a España are clear. Jumbo-Visma dominated the GC with three riders, Sepp Kuss, Jonas Vingegaard, and Primoz Roglic, only to face internal discontent when it came time to pick a winner. The team backed Kuss, but not everyone went quietly. Roglic ultimately left the team.

At UAE, things may be heading down a similar road. Alongside Del Toro and Ayuso, the team also has Brandon McNulty and Adam Yates in the top nine overall. It’s a strategic embarrassment of riches, but also a logistical headache.

Ayuso, once the undisputed heir to Pogacar within the team’s Grand Tour hierarchy, now finds himself shadowed, quite literally, by Del Toro. Despite his crashes and the wounds he’s carrying, the Spaniard remains very much in contention. “He has already fallen twice… his right knee was opened again and required three stitches,” Coorevits reports. But he keeps fighting. He won’t fade into a domestique role quietly.

Del Toro, for his part, doesn’t strike observers as a rider willing to sacrifice himself for a more senior teammate. His calm demeanour and aggressive instincts suggest someone ready to fight for his place at the top. The podium in Rome, and perhaps more significantly, leadership status in the team going forward, is on the line.

Caught in the middle is UAE’s sports director, Joxean Fernández Matxin. A confidant of both riders, Matxin is playing a waiting game. “He is blowing hot and cold at the same time,” writes Coorevits, hoping that the high mountain stages next week will naturally produce a clear winner so that he doesn’t have to pick one himself.

But if the riders remain close on time, a decision will have to be made. Del Toro’s form suggests he could carry pink all the way to Rome, but can Ayuso come back?