"It wasn't a bad day for them" - Bruyneel on UAE's calmness with Del Toro in the lead and Ayuso in the back

Johan Bruyneel analyzed stage 14 of the Giro d'Italia 2025 on the Lance Armstrong's The Move podcast, focusing on the fact that two crashes, the one in Siena and the one yesterday, have greatly conditioned the overall classification of the Giro d'Italia so far.

"The main thing about the stage was that another crash impacted heavily on the overall. If you look at the classification there are two big crashes that have impacted most of the gains and losses in the classification, almost everything comes from the sterrato stage and this Saturday's stage. It's unfortunate, but it's part of cycling and you have to say that a guy like Del Toro, despite being very young is riding like a veteran expert, he's always where he needs to be, always in a good position."

The Belgian, with many years of experience first as a cyclist and later as a sports director, made it clear that the luck factor had an impact yesterday on the positions of Primoz Roglic, Juan Ayuso, Isaac del Toro and the rest of the favorites:

"It had to do with luck what happened yesterday, Del Toro and Carapaz fell just in front of Roglic and Bernal and were able to continue, the other two were blocked and without a bike, 7 of the 8 Lidl-Trek riders went to the ground, the only one who didn't was Carlos Verona. It happened at the front. Roads like this with flat cobblestones and rain are the worst, it's like ice skating, I think it's better to have real round cobblestones, because the cyclists are forced to go slower, these flat cobblestones look like a normal road, but they are extremely slippery."

He does not agree with Wout van Aert's criticism blaming riders for the massive crash that did not influence Visma because they were setting the pace at the front:

"I've seen statements from Van Aert criticizing other teams, but it's easy to say that when you're in the lead, carrying the pace, but the teams in the general must be in the lead, they must fight for position, it's normal for them to try, there's not too much space, it was all there in the lead, there was nowhere to go and it was a matter of luck, Del Toro, Carapaz and Simon Yates were in the lead; Bernal, Roglic, Ayuso and Tiberi lost valuable time; Tiberi more than the rest, you can forget about the general."

A bad day for UAE? Bruyneel is very clear that no, they were not uncomfortable with the end of the race as they showed by not pulling to take Ayuso forward:

"I don't think it was a bad day for UAE, at one point there were 3 groups, one with Del Toro, the second with Ayuso and a third with 3 or 4 UAE, when those UAE joined Ayuso's group they didn't pull, which clearly means that UAE has the confidence in Del Toro compared by guys like Carapaz or Simon Yates and Ayuso stays with the same time of the favorite before the race started, Primoz Roglic."