"Juan Ayuso either can't be bothered, or doesn't think he's up to standard for GC" — Ben O'Connor weighs in on UAE’s flawed dual leadership strategy at La Vuelta 2025

Ben O’Connor has never been one to mince his words, and at the 2025 Vuelta a Espana, the Australian GC contender is providing not just strong legs but sharp insight — particularly when it comes to the contrasting approaches of rival teams in the early going.

Reflecting on UAE Team Emirates - XRG’s chaotic opening week — punctuated by Juan Ayuso’s dramatic time loss in the Pyrenees, followed by a stage-hunting pivot just 24 hours later — O’Connor offered a candid assessment of the Spaniard’s strategy.

"I think it's smart. I think it's almost a good idea — someone like Ayuso, he's clearly been able to do GC in the past, and he either can't be bothered to do it here, or doesn't think he can scrape up to his standards, so why not go for stages and rack them up?" O’Connor mused at the stage 8 start in Monzón. "You're still a quality bike rider, and you're going to be able to get a good day out, it just doesn't mean you need to do GC day in, day out. So I think it's a good idea."

While Ayuso’s abrupt shift in focus has puzzled many, O’Connor sees it as a rational recalibration — and a sign of a team willing to be flexible when GC ambitions begin to fray. That said, he contrasts UAE’s opportunistic strategy with the more traditional "all-in" GC approach of Team Visma | Lease a Bike, built entirely around two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard.

For now, O’Connor isn’t rushing to judgment about which approach is superior. As he sees it, the Vuelta hasn’t truly begun in earnest. "I think just purely the nature of the course has been pretty straightforward, and ultimately not that technical — but it's going to come," he assesses. "The stage in Bilbao [stage 11] is a really tricky one and one where chaos will start to reign and show itself. That's often the best moment, so probably wait till then if you want to see huge fights. But until that point, I think you'll see a lot of drag races."

"It's a curious stage, and it's not ideal for me, but it's a stage where you get some really hard racing," he said. "But don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, it's been nice to do some straightforward racing after what was just like the roughest July — it sucked actually, that whole Tour de France. It was a constant fight day in, day out, so it's a pleasure to have a bit more of a straightforward run."

That shift from chaos to clarity has coincided with another major change for the West Australian: his move from the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team to Team Jayco AlUla. After years with African and French squads, the return to an Australian setup has been a welcome reset. "It hasn't been too much of a struggle because you fall into your natural self and the culture you grew up with, rather than making it work in another team culture. I'm enjoying it all at Jayco."

O’Connor is clearly in a better place — mentally, physically, and culturally — than he was during a punishing July campaign. While the likes of Almeida, Vingegaard, and others are still waiting in the wings for decisive stages, he’s using these early days to stay sharp, stay consistent, and position himself for when the real fight begins.

"It's been quite straightforward already, it'll be different once we're in trickier days," he concluded. "When there's a one or two-hour breakaway fight, that's when you really need the boys around you."