Bruyneel saw UAE avoid the real challenge in the Vuelta: “Winning a grand tour with someone other than Pogacar”

In the podcast The Move, he shared his thoughts on UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s riding style in the recent Vuelta, which was ultimately won by Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike), after Almeida was unable to seriously trouble the Dane in the final week. “A different tactic wouldn’t have changed the outcome in my view,” Bruyneel began his analysis.

He did acknowledge, however, that UAE’s performance hardly looked like a well-oiled machine. “It just didn’t look good. One leader and all these so-called free agents, doing their own thing chasing stage wins, and not being there when they were needed. But would it have made a difference? I’d say no,” he concluded firmly.

Bruyneel believes UAE’s disjointed racing stemmed from a lack of belief that they could actually win the overall victory. “We sit here analyzing everything from our screens, but the team knows exactly what power numbers their riders can put out. They may have known all along that it would be extremely difficult for Almeida to drop Vingegaard.”

Still, Bruyneel was disappointed that the multi-million squad didn’t fully commit to the overall win. “In UAE’s case, why bother with stage wins and the mountains jersey? Let’s try to win a grand tour with someone other than Tadej Pogacar. That would have been fantastic.”

At the end of the day, though, it was still a Vuelta that any other team would have gladly signed for beforehand. “In the end, it was a very good Vuelta for them,” said Bruyneel. “Seven stages, second overall, and the mountains jersey. They are by far the best team in professional cycling right now.”

“In the end, the criticism isn’t so much about the team’s tactics, but more about the behavior of some riders,” Bruyneel clarified. “We could only guess whether the tactic was A, but some riders went with B. I’d say especially in the beginning there was some disagreement with Juan Ayuso. But that mostly played out off the bike, with that press release.”

Still, Bruyneel noted that in the last and decisive mountain stage finishing on the Bola del Mundo, everyone was on the same page. “Although Ayuso initially chased stage wins and wasn’t there when he was needed, that wasn’t the case in stage 20. They were all there and all did what was expected of them.”

“And yet, there was nothing to be done against Jonas… Could they have done things differently in earlier stages?” Bruyneel doubts it would have made a difference. “We always talk about tactics and strategies here, but often it’s much simpler than we think. You just need to have the legs.”