Former Vuelta winner slams UAE: “They failed João Almeida... Isaac del Toro should be a Giro winner – Internal politics cost them two Grand Tours”

Chris Horner did not mince his words in the aftermath of the disrupted Stage 21 of the 2025 Vuelta a Espana. With protesters halting the final circuit in Madrid, the American Grand Tour winner used his YouTube channel to reflect not just on Jonas Vingegaard’s overall victory, but more pointedly on what he sees as a season-long pattern of tactical failures from UAE Team Emirates – XRG.

“UAE won seven stages at this Vuelta and the team classification,” Horner acknowledged. “But tactically, they failed Almeida. Picking Juan Ayuso – knowing he was leaving – and then letting him and Jay Vine chase stages instead of working for GC was a huge mistake.”

Horner’s critique did not begin in Spain. He traced what he calls “recurring tactical failures” back to May’s Giro d’Italia. There, UAE’s Isaac Del Toro held the Maglia Rosa deep into the final week before losing it on Stage 20’s ascent of the Colle delle Finestre. “At the Giro, the UAE directors lost Isaac Del Toro the race on Stage 20,” Horner said. “Simon Yates went up the road and took the Pink Jersey away… Del Toro should have been the 2025 Giro d’Italia winner. Instead, he lost pink on the penultimate mountain stage.”

The criticism is not of the riders’ strength, but of the directors’ decision-making: instructions to defend rather than attack, and a failure to adapt once Yates and Richard Carapaz applied pressure. For Horner, that pattern re-emerged at the Vuelta.

João Almeida’s consistency brought him to second overall in Madrid, but Horner believes he was undermined from within. “They allowed Juan Ayuso to win two stages after he dropped out of GC contention. They allowed Jay Vine to go stage-hunting too, winning two stages. Both were riding for themselves instead of 100% committing to Almeida.”

The context became clearer during the race, when news broke that Ayuso would be leaving UAE at the end of 2025. The team knew this, Horner pointed out, yet still selected him over Giro revelation Del Toro.

“That decision weakened Almeida’s support,” Horner argued. “Ayuso burned team resources in the first week, then went stage-hunting, leaving Almeida isolated in critical moments – Stage 9 when Vingegaard attacked with Jorgenson, Stage 11 when Tom Pidcock forced splits, and even in the final mountain stages. Almeida often had no teammates when he needed them most.”

For Horner, the cumulative effect of UAE’s fractured approach was decisive. He highlighted Stage 9, when Almeida was caught out of position, and Stage 19, when Vingegaard snatched bonus seconds “when UAE were caught napping.”

“On Stage 20 UAE finally executed good tactics,” he noted. “Ayuso did his job. But Almeida still had to pull long turns late in the stage because he lacked teammates, while Visma could sit on. If Almeida had been fresher, if UAE had committed all along, maybe the Vuelta result would have been different.”

Almeida’s runner-up finish capped a season in which UAE Team Emirates – XRG frequently dominated the stage tally and team classification at the Grand Tours, but twice missed out on overall victories. Del Toro’s Giro defeat and Almeida’s Vuelta second place frame Horner’s wider critique: success spread too thinly across multiple leaders, with politics and contract situations clouding tactical clarity. “They need to sort out their internal politics and directorial decisions if they want to convert their immense depth into Grand Tour victories,” Horner concluded.

Team Visma | Lease a Bike, by contrast, delivered a measured and disciplined campaign for Vingegaard. Horner conceded the Dane may not have had the same climbing dominance of 2022–24 – “adding muscle seemed to blunt the knockout climbing power” – but tactically, Visma were “calm, intelligent, seizing time when rivals made mistakes, defending when necessary, and not overreaching.”

The contrast, Horner implied, was stark: one team squeezing every second out of diminished resources, another squandering strength in depth.

Horner’s assessment will resonate with those who have long seen UAE Team Emirates - XRG’s biggest strength – their galaxy of GC talents – as also their greatest liability. In both the Giro and Vuelta of 2025, internal rivalries and tactical missteps arguably cost them two Grand Tour victories.

Whether they learn the lesson in time for 2026, and finally crack the Grand Tour winning code when Tadej Pogacar isn't around, remains the looming question.