DISCUSSION Vuelta a España Stage 6 | Will Juan Ayuso work for Joao Almeida?

The sixth stage of the Vuelta a España featured the first real mountain test of this edition, with 170km in the menu and four categorized climbs.

The stage immediately started uphill with the climb of Collada de Santigosa (11.1km at 4.2%), in which many attacks took place to try to get into the breakaway. It took a while, but a 10-men break was established: Jay Vine, Lorenzo Fortunato, Louis Vervaeke, Bruno Armirail, Torstein Traeen, Pablo Castrillo, Gianmarco Garofoli, Ramses Debruyne, Archie Ryan and James Shaw.

The peloton was controlled at every moment by Visma | Lease a Bike, which did not seem pressed at all by the break. Despite riders such as Torstein Traeen or Armirail sitting just 1 minute behind Vingegaard in the general classification, the Dutch team did not impose a hard pace and let the break gain more and more time.

With only the last two climbs remaining, it was clear that the victory belonged to the break, as the gap with peloton had grown to more than 6 minutes. Jay Vine attacked in the last descent before the final climb to Pal (9.6km à 6.5%) and went solo.

Nobody was able to catch him, and the Australian secured his tenth professional win, the third at the Vuelta after winning twice in 2022 while in Alpecin. Torstein Traeen crossed the finish line in second place and became the new red jersey holder.

Behind them, peloton wasn’t riding at full gas until Lidl – Trek came on stage, igniting the race and setting a very hard pace. Juan Ayuso proved he is far from top shape, losing contact with the peloton early and arriving almost 8 minutes behind the GC favourites, virtually losing all options to get a good GC result.

Jonas Vingegaard and Giulio Ciccone were the most active riders, attacking a couple of times to put even more pressure on UAE, as Almeida was left alone. In the end, almost all the GC contenders arrived together at the finish line.

Once the stage finished, we asked some of our writers to share their thoughts and main takeaways about what happened today.

Juan Ayuso losing time in the big story of the day. Seemingly something expected within UAE and he is here to focus on getting a stage win, preparing for Worlds and supporting Almeida. In the next weeks we'll see if that is what happens, but yes there are reasons to believe it will be the case - although I'm certain that was not the plan starting the race.

Up front a victory for a 'home' rider, something expected as Visma did not want to spend energy and keep the jersey. Jay Vine was the strongest in the front group and he had all the motivation to succeed with his family at the finish line (as I'm sure several others did). Torstein Traeen is an unlikely new leader.

In the GC there was the clear feel that almost no-one looked to attack. Lidl-Trek single handedly made the finale somewhat exciting, they clearly don't have the team to put others under pressure in the mountains but Ciccone does have the legs to attack and make the difference. But with the weather at the finish substantially better than the forecasts, then in such a climb it was very hard to make a difference. In the end, a stalemate, and I don't believe Jonas Vingegaard gave it his all.

Juan Ayuso is a winner, he is a star. He may rub people the wrong way, yes, but he doesn’t fool anyone. The Spanish press wanted to sell the idea that the Valencian rider was coming to the Vuelta a España to fight Jonas Vingegaard and Joao Almeida for the general classification, but that wasn’t true. He wasn’t in shape, as he showed today by losing 12 minutes at the finish on the first summit finish in Andorra.

Another type of rider would have lost much less, but he’s at odds with UAE. Last year they didn’t let him ride the Vuelta after the Tour de France ‘affair,’ and this year they repeatedly assured him he would only ride the Giro. Then, when Tadej Pogacar decided not to race the Vuelta, they came back to him, even though he was preparing for the World Championships.

He arrives completely out of form and, I think, without the desire to go for the general classification. That’s why, beyond not having the strength, he also let himself go. We’ll see from now on if he helps Almeida or goes for stage wins. I see him getting closer and closer to Lidl-Trek…

Rain, mountains, Andorra and Ayuso. If the peloton got rained on in Italy, everyone was happy to get to Spain because it would be hot. The rain continued to keep the peloton company and today everyone was very careful, as the last descent was very technical and the ground was wet. In Andorra, a ‘man of the house’ won, motivated by the knowledge that his family was at the finish line. I hope to see this same Jay Vine with the same strength and the same legs in the stages to come.

Ayuso. Juan Ayuso will be the topic of the day. I'm at a loss for words to describe a cyclist who is notoriously against his will in the UAE. He can argue that he's out of shape, thinking about the World Championships, that he's only in Spain because Pogacar has decided not to race the Vuelta. Rubbish.

If Ayuso had told the team management that he was out of shape, they wouldn't have called the Spaniard into the line-up. Ayuso had to give assurances that he was ready for the challenge. We're talking about cycling at the highest level, not third division cycling. Take a look at the Emirates line-up for the Brittany Classic. There are men there who, like Ayuso, were ready to replace Pogacar.

If Matxin agreed to bring in Ayuso, it wasn't a unilateral decision. What will Ayuso do now? Abandon the race, as he always does when he's not the star? Will he compromise and help Almeida? Will he simply skip the race, lose more time, so that he can try to win a stage later? Let's wait and see. If Ayuso want redemption, this is the right time for it.

UAE’s leadership is crystal clear now. Joao Almeida is the absolute leader of the team after Juan Ayuso’s collapse, something that honestly surprised me. The stage wasn’t the hardest and the pace had been slow in peloton, so losing almost 8 minutes was a lot. One plausible explanation might be that he wanted to lose as much time as possible in order to be given more freedom in future stages, so he could be a satellite rider for Almeida.

However, we will have to see whether Ayuso actually accepts a domestique role… as we know that is something he has not willingly accepted in the past. Will he go on the hunt for stage wins or will he focus on protecting Almeida? Knowing past dynamics of that team, especially when Tadej Pogacar is absent, I expect drama…

Regarding the rest of favourites, they barely tested each other today. I was expecting much more action, but they took it easy. Days after a time trial are often uncertain and they might have preferred to save their legs. Vingegaard didn’t have any issues to deal with Ciccone’s attack – the only one trying something. Gaudu showed weakness today, surprising after his strong start, but other than that everything was pretty much as expected.

Visma have to be very satisfied today. After losing time to UAE yesterday, they saw how one of the two UAE’s leader was completely eliminated from GC contention. It is always much easier to fight against one leader instead of two, especially when they are on paper two of the biggest rivals in the race. And Vingegaard also lost the red jersey to someone that shouldn’t be relevant for the long term, which is something I think Visma wanted to do.