"Do everything in our power to make Van Gils’ life as hard as possible” - UAE to come back fighting after losing out on opening stage of Vuelta a Andalucia

Things looked to be poised very positively for UAE Team Emirates - XRG heading towards the finale of stage 1 at the 2025 Vuelta a Andalucia. Despite having the numbers advantage though, Tim Wellens and Pavel Sivakov were outfoxed by Maxim van Gils in a three-up fight for the stage win.

Despite the ultimate disappointment of missing out on the stage victory, Wellens especially sees the positives of a strong team performance on the opening day of the Spanish stage race. “We wanted to make it a hard stage," he explains in post-race comments to the official website of UAE Team Emirates - XRG. "We went à bloc with Julius Johansen and then Igor Arrieta attacked, before Pavel Sivakov, Marc Soler and Pablo Torres also made a move. In the end, Pavel went away and I joined him along with Van Gils, when we became a three."

As mentioned though, Wellens and Sivakov failed to make their numerical advantage count in the finale. “We were not thinking about the general classification but about the stage win, which we really wanted. We attacked many times but to be honest, Van Gils was the strongest and he deserved the victory," Wellens concedes honestly. "Now we have to take a look at GC and over the next days, do everything in our power to make Van Gils’ life as hard as possible.”