Despite the strength of their team, UAE Team Emirates-XRG are yet to fully shine at this year's Vuelta a España, failing to contest either of the punchier finishes on stages 3 and 4, and lacking a fast man to contest the two sprint days, but as the team time trial arrives on stage 5, their first win of the race could be right around the corner.
It's 24.1 kilometres that they have to contest on Wednesday, as a flat team time trial comes into play and pits the 23 teams against each other and the clock for the first stage in Spain of the race's 2025 edition.
UAE's co-leaders, João Almeida and Juan Ayuso, are both adept time trial riders, so that shouldn't be an issue, but with specialists such as Jay Vine and Mikkel Bjerg also present at the Vuelta, they will probably line up in Figueres with the strongest squad.
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That being said, UAE Team Emirates-XRG aren't overly stressed – about the TTT or having performed relatively quietly as pre-race favourite and key rival Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) already having won a stage – with Ayuso and Almeida's teammates well aware that Wednesday won't be the be-all, end-all of the GC battle.
"I'm probably expecting about a 30-second spread between the top guys in the top five, but it's also one of those things where I don't think it's going to make or break this Vuelta, really," Vine told Cyclingnews.
"It will be about 25 to 26 minutes, and it's not like Paris-Nice rules, where it's the first guy's time – you have to get four guys to the finish line. I like it a bit more because you really have to work more as a team.
"The course looks pretty good, not too technical, and it's the first day back in Spain, so that will be nice. Realistic options are top three, but we're always wanting to go for the win, and with the team we've got here, it's well within our grasp."
With UAE's eight riders for the Vuelta taking different routes to the start, Vine admitted that the discipline isn't something that has been practised much in preparation, but was confident things would work out given the typically formulaic nature of the all-out team effort.
"We've got a couple of guys coming from the Tour, so there's no point pretending to practice unless you're going to go full gas," said Vine.
"We all know how to do a team time trial, we've got the plan, but we won't be able to finalise pacing or anything like that until the day before, because we don't know the weather. But you see guys riding in a line and swapping off at like 300 watts, yeah, we all know how to ride in a line, so there's not much point in [practising] that really."
In terms of his own shape, Vine says he's still somewhat of an unknown, having already raced the Giro d'Italia this season and just coming off the back of another training camp as a late call-up to the start in Italy.
"I'm looking forward to getting to Madrid, but I was a late call-up to this race, so my form is still coming into its own," said the Australian, who's finished in the top six of every time trial he's raced in 2025. "I only just came down from altitude after preparing for the race, so we'll see how we go day by day."
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