When Pavel Sivakov stood on the Vuelta a España sign-on podium on Tuesday to receive his award for the previous stage's most combative rider, it was a timely reminder of how UAE Team Emirates-XRG now have no choice following Tadej Pogačar's abandon but to switch objectives completely from the GC to stage wins.
Once again, Sivakov and Kevin Vermaercke, both in the breakaways on stage 9, were extremely active in the late moves that materialized on stage 10, too, as riders tested Cofidis and Visma-Lease a Bike's willingness to try and keep things under control for a bunch sprint.
As UAE riders told media pre-stage in the mixed zone, despite his enforced absence, Pogačar remained very much uppermost in their thoughts, with the team following his recovery progress from afar. And, the Slovenian was reportedly keeping an eye on their progress in the race, too.
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"Morale obviously could be better, but we're continuing on and sending Tadej healing vibes," teammate Jay Vine told Cyclingnews at the stage start.
"At this point, trying to get back is probably not on the forefront of his mind, but trying just to recover and reset for the next goals.
"Our objective is breakaway stages. We'll see how everyone's going on these next stages but it [Tuesday] is also a good opportunity for [Visma] to control the race for their two fast guys as well."
The operation to repair a fractured clavical on Monday afternoon and early evening was carried out by the well-known Catalan orthopedic surgeon Xavier Mir, El Periodico newspaper reported. Dr. Mir is famous for having treated a large number of MotoGP pilots for various injuries.
"We know he's had the operation [on his collarbone] and that it's gone well," teammate Ivo Oliveira told TVE, "and we're hoping he recovers as quickly as possible.
"He's still watching the Vuelta, he's fan of the team and of the race, we've got a great group here even without Tadej and Pablo [Torres, who abandoned on stage 9 - Ed.].
"Saturday was complicated because we went [from' having for one leader to a team fighting for breaks. But [Sports Director Joxean] Matxin talked to us, and he told us we still had things to fight for in the Vuelta, but we'd have to change mentality. And that's what we've done."
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