We don't know what is really going on inside UAE Team Emirates with Juan Ayuso, but from the outside it seems clear: Juan Ayuso must leave the UAE team if he wants to fight for a Grand Tour win in the short term.
We analyze this together with CiclismoAlDia. Tadej Pogacar's team will have the Slovenian leading one or two Grand Tours every year and in the leadership scale right now Joao Almeida and Adam Yates are above the Valencian. As if that wasn't enough, behind him Isaac del Toro is pushing hard and we'll see what he can do in the next Vuelta a España.
Until this year everything was going perfectly for Juan in Matxín's team: 2 seasons as a professional and twice unchallenged leader of the Emirati squad in the Vuelta a España. He has responded to perfection: third in his first participation in 2022 and fourth in 2023 after the three Jumbo-Visma in a very complicated year in which he was stopped for a long time due to physical problems.
Thus, with Pogacar as the only leader in the Giro, the team decided to go all out in the Tour to try to dethrone Vingegaard and joined Ayuso, Yates and Almeida as the Slovenian's 3 deputy leaders, with the first 2 being key in Pogi's victory and with Ayuso distant from the collective plan. Mauro Gianetti, team DS, said there would be no change of plans with respect to participating in the Vuelta a España despite his health problems that took him out of the Tour.
The team's position is understandable: they've promised Yates and Almeida to be the ringleaders in the Vuelta and they're not going to put Ayuso in. That would have made them quite angry.
So, we have Juan with a strange season to date in which he racked up wins and podiums in the classics early on, was second to Vingegaard in Tirreno-Adriaticoand won Itzulia Basque Country. He was way up in the Tour when he abandoned on stage 13.
Juan Ayuso during the Tour de France. He was dropped by UAE days before testing positive for Covid-19 and withdrawing from the race. @Sirotti
Time to leave UAE Team Emirates
The argument for why he should leave the team is the following:
Yes, he's tired after the Tour. Yes, he won't be at 100% for the Vuelta. Yes, there are theoretically better riders in his team to take on the Vuelta. However, we believe UAE is the only WorldTour team that would have made this decision. We believe that anyone else, including a Visma team that will go with Sepp Kuss as leader, would have taken a leader of Juan Ayuso's quality to the Vuelta even if he wasn't 100%.
So, what can Juan expect next year: co-leadership in the Giro, another Grand Tour as Pogi's domestique at the Tour? Supposedly, the Slovenian could ride the Vuelta next year to complete his triplet?
What happens if Almeida or Yates wins the Spanish race? Simple, less priority for the Valencian. He should force his way out. In any other team he would be one hundred percent sure to lead alone (at least) one grand tour a year.
Matxín today made it very clear in AS that they are counting on him. He (also in AS) wanted to make it clear that he is in a good mood with the team and that he was not in optimal physical condition to face the Vuelta. Everything indicates that he will continue...
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Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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LET’S GO. VAMOS 🇪🇸🔥 #LaVuelta24 #UAETeamEmirates #WeAreUAE
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