Mountain king and eventual super domestique Vine confesses that Almeida wasn't the only one who struggled with sickness at UAE

The climber laid the foundation for his mountain classification victory in the first ten days, during which he won two stages and was often in contention to collect points. In the second week, the focus slowly shifted to helping Almeida, which was definitely the plan on day 20. “The goal was to try to win La Vuelta. Personally, it's really nice, but today I didn't really cared about the points, it was all-in to try and win this race,” said Vine afterward.

That didn't happen, due to a strong Vingegaard and an Almeida who was feeling sick. It wasn't Vine's fault, who led the way up to the steepest sections of the Bola del Mundo. He even managed to drop Almeida for a moment. “Unfortunately, we came up short. Unfortunately, the whole team has been struggling with some sickness for about 10 days now.”

Judging by his legs, Vine had no problems on Saturday. But he emphasized that his teammates were no longer fresh, just when the decision in the Vuelta had to be forced. “We haven't been able to really show what we are capable of, like I think we did earlier in the race.”

“We came out swinging, we put it all on the line and we tried” said Vine, who can console himself with a mountain jersey in Madrid on Sunday. Almeida also finishes second in the GC and UAE wins the team classification. “Winning the polka dot jersey is a bittersweet victory, I guess. The goal was to try to win La Vuelta. Personally, it's really nice.”

Although disappointment prevailed at the top of the Bola del Mundo, UAE can, of course, look back on an exceptionally successful Vuelta. The victory march began on day 5, when the million-dollar formation was the fastest in the team time trial. A day later, Vine claimed his first stage victory from the early breakaway.

From there, the momentum was unstoppable, as Juan Ayuso—who announced with the team in the Vuelta that he would be leaving in 2026 to ride elsewhere—won the seventh stage. Three in a row, something UAE casually repeated in the second week. After Vingegaard took the lead in the GC on day 9, Vine won the tenth stage after the first rest day, again from the breakaway.

This is where things started to get a little rocky, because Almeida showed himself to be stronger and stronger in the second week against Vingegaard, who, in turn, was getting a little weaker, due to illness, as it turned out. However, UAE continued to attack at full throttle. Ayuso won stage 12, Almeida himself took the stage on the Angliru, and Marc Soler did the same in stage 14. From that moment on, germs got the upper hand and UAE did not win any more stages.

Sickness played an important role in the peloton anyway, because in addition to Vingegaard and Almeida - who fortunately did not get very sick - we saw Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek drop out of the classification due to the flu. Green jersey wearer Mads Pedersen also had a difficult time at one point, but survived and will arrive in Madrid as the winner of the points classification.