"Like a kid in a toy store" - Juan Ayuso's attitude could destroy the whole Vuelta

Juan Ayuso has proven that his form at the 2025 Vuelta a Espana is not all that bad after some question marks arised during sixth stage where he lost seven minutes on the group of favourites. But to silence doubters, Ayuso went and won the very next stage from breakaway, without any weakness shown to his opponents. Two days later, he didn't make it into the front group and... Ayuso completely refused to spend any energy at the front in favor of his leader Joao Almeida, dropping out of peloton as soon as the group arrived to the foot of final climb.

"If you see what Ayuso did on Sunday, you can't do it, can you?" Jeroen Vanbelleghem wonders about the events from Sunday in the Kop over Kop show. "He dropped out of a group of 70 or 80 riders? He was dropped at the bottom."

It was a stark contrast to the way the Spaniard rode everyone off his wheel in the breakaway two days earlier. That has proven that there is no physical downside for the 22-year-old. "Ayuso wins a stage brilliantly and rides solo at the front for an hour on the first climb. The entire peloton is in tatters. And then he drops everyone on the final climb. You think: you don't want to help the team? I always thought: nice guy, nice man. But when you see this…"

There was a sliver of hope Ayuso could change his mind and subdue to team orders after being given a freedom earlier... Wrong. "After winning that stage, I thought: now the team play begins. But Ayuso didn't help Almeida one bit," the commentator continues.

The one who pays the biggest price for Ayuso's attitude is however UAE Team Emirates - XRG's leader Joao Almeida who wasn't too far off the dominant leader of this Vuelta Jonas Vingegaard on the Valdezcaray summit finish. "I missed my teammates. There was no one there," Almeida lamented after the stage 9.

"A good Ayuso could have helped Almeida. Then we would have had a completely different stage. It's also a shame for the race," Vanbelleghem wraps his train of thoughts.

Bobbie Traksel offers an apt comparison. "Ayuso is like a kid in a toy store who doesn't get his toy and then just lies on the floor kicking and hitting."

Ultimately, it is being discussed whether UAE should go as far as to send Ayuso home during the first rest day. "That's very difficult with Ayuso during the Vuelta, because you really look like a fool. But he thinks he's king in a kingdom with far too many kings, and he doesn't have the right to be. Almeida is a team player and does his job for Pogacar, but Ayuso... if you're less than a teammate, you just work, don't you?"