"The race itself will decide" - UAE happy to let Adam Yates & Juan Ayuso fight it out for Giro d'Italia team leadership

With a completely different tactic to their Tadej Pogacar led team in 2024, UAE Team Emirates - XRG return to the Giro d'Italia in 2025 backing two horses, with both Adam Yates and Juan Ayuso both holding general classification ambitions. According to sports director Fabio Baldato, their really isn't any hierarchy between the two leaders either - at least not yet.

"I was at the training camp with them, and I can check the numbers - the guys are good, they are ready," Baldato said confidently in conversation with Cycling News from the start of the Giro, with the DS going into more detail about the team's leadership strategy over the coming weeks. "I hope the two of them stay together [on GC] for as long as possible, and then the race itself will decide who the real captain is."

According to Baldato, it might not be until the third week that either Yates or Ayuso really proves themselves the stronger of the two and therefore the true leader of the team. "We need to get there and see what happens, then maybe we can make a choice," he explained. "But not now. We can also work better as a team that way, which is the main reason why we have both."

As for Yates, the Brit too was towing the team's line of multiple leaders, not looking to put himself above his Spanish colleague. "We've got several leaders," Yates says simply. "Everyone's going good, everyone's been training really well, we're not concerned about it. We'll work it out, the whole team is at a super high level, and we can use that to our advantage."

"We've maybe not got the big favourite, we've got plenty of guys in the second group and we can maybe use that to our advantage. We just have to be smart, take our time and be patient and see how the race pans out," adds the Brit in conclusion. "It's a stacked start list, we've got to be careful and stay out of trouble these first few days. Then we'll see about GC after that."