Less than two months on from their all-conquering and record-equalling fifth triumph in the Tour de France, UAE Team Emirates-XRG reached the end of the Vuelta a España with heads held high despite the setbacks. However, they were well aware, too, that after a hugely-promising beginning, things warped for reasons beyond their control into what proved to be one of their toughest-ever Grand Tours of recent years.
Parked in the quietest part of the teams paddock before the start of stage 21, the UAE bus had well-wishers, family and friends, as well as a hefty detachment of the Guardia Civil traffic police, who wanted to share a moment with the squad. They posed for photos and had chats with management and riders.
There was also time for a group photo for UAE's management and riders, but with just four riders finishing the race of the original eight who started in Monaco - Ivo Oliveira, João Almeida, Kevin Vermarcke and Domen Novak - it was clear how much of a toll the Vuelta had taken on the team, too.
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Chief amongst those absent was former Vuelta leader and world number one Tadej Pogačar, whose accident on stage 8 left the rest of the team, and the race, reeling in disbelief and shock.
The squad managed to regroup and keep plugging away for stage wins, but as Joxean Fernandez Matxin, head of sport at UAE Team Emirates-XRG, told Cyclingnews, Pogačar's exit was the start of a whole series of misfortunes for the team.
"It was a very good Vuelta but then it changed radically in the second half," Matxin said. "That started with Tadej fall, then Pablo Torres had his knee problem the next day, then Jay Vine had to leaves and we still don't know what's wrong with him. He's maybe got a virus and we've done various tests to see what is up with him.
"After that, Pavel had two heatstrokes, and we virtually obliged him to leave because he was so disoriented. We basically told him that he couldn't go on because he was feeling very out of it and it was 43 degrees [Celsius]. So that was it, we had four riders out in four days."
The situation could not have been better beforehand, Matxin said, particularly as Pogačar came from winning the Tour de France. He then went from strength to strength in the Vuelta, claiming three stages and the lead, as well as holding the top sport in the mountains classification at the point when suddenly the crash forced the Slovenian to quit early.
"Jay Vine came from winning two stages the year before, too, he always had a good relationship with the Vuelta," said Matxin, and "even then after the disaster [of Pogačar's crash] we had a tough time first with Pablo, then Jay, then Pavel.
"We kept trying with Kevin, and João, a rider who had Epstein-Barr leading to mononucleosis earlier this year although we don't know when he had it in this period and it's been a difficult time for him.
"He has gone better but not at the level we're used to, and so he's gone from finishing second behind Jonas Vingegaard and winning on the Angliru [in the 2025 Vuelta] to suffering, and just holding on as best he can. So we've just been fighting for every stage."
As for Pogačar, Matxin said that the Slovenian continues to recover at home. It was clear over a week ago that his plans regarding the fight for a third rainbow jersey and the remainder of the season had been scratched because of his injuries. But Matxin had no news, either, regarding a possible visit to Canada to the Worlds as a 'civilian', now that Urška Žigart, his partner, had been ruled out of the Worlds after refracturing her jaw in a crash over the weekend.
Following Pogačar's departure and with the team slowly getting depleted, Matxin had plenty to do himself, as the team suffered a radical alteration in its priorities. As he told Cyclingnews, "We went from controlling breaks to trying to be the ones who were trying to escape the control of the GC teams".
The number of UAE riders in breakaways, particularly Vermaerke, showed that they were succeeding in doing that. But as Matxin said, the switch in focus made for a very different scenario, "and we have had to adapt to that".
"Kevin, for example, was a rider who had started the Vuelta along with Pavel and Jay trying to help Tadej win stages and the overall, and we've had to adapt to something different," Matxin said.
"We've gone to being totally combative, going for stage wins, all the time. It's a change of attitude from controlling breaks to trying to break the GC teams control on the breaks. That's a very different scenario."
Thirteen stages after Pogačar's untimely exit and after more and more UAE riders followed him, Matxin was keeping a close eye on the GC battle. But if Pogačar could not make it to Granada, Matxin felt that for Mas and for Spain, a win was also a long time coming.
"I've no idea who's won the last Vuelta for Spain" - [Alberto Contador in 2014 - Ed.] but Enric and Mas deserved another one, particularly a guy like Enric who's been on the Vuelta podium four times," Matxin concluded. "And I can't think of anybody who doesn't think he's a great racer."
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