UAE TEAM EMIRATES

The last Italian World Tour team is now riding under Arab colours, ensured by financing from the Persian Gulf: the United Arab Emirates and the Dubai airline Fly Emirates. This has been one of the classic names in international cycling over the past decades, and will participate in the Vuelta for the 26th time, since debuting in 1990. Throughout its long history, the squad has accumulated an impressive 33 partial triumphs, starting their victory tally in 1993, with a win by Ukrainian rider Sergei Outschakov and three wins by Uzbekistan sprinter Djamolidine Abdoujaparov. With its return in 1999, they put the then unknown African cycling on the map, with Robert Hunter’s historic success in Benidorm. From that year on, they continued to obtain victories with such varied, well-known riders as Gilberto Simoni and Mariano Piccoli (2000), Juanma Gárate (2001), Daniele Bennati (2007), Damiano Cunego (2009), Alessandro Petacchi (2010), Francesco Gavazzi (2011), Winner Anacona and Przemislay Niemec (2014), Nelson Oliveira and Rubén Plaza (2015), Valerio Conti (2016), Matej Mohoric (2017), Jasper Philipsen (2020), and, lastly, Rafal Majka in 2021.

In 2019, the UAE had pinned its hopes for La Vuelta on Fabio Aru (winner of La Vuelta 15), when the name of a very young Slovenian rider emerged, a real diamond in the rough. At just 20 years old, Tadej Pogačar was one of the protagonists of the 74th edition of La Vuelta. Three partial victories, a podium in the general classification and the jersey to the Best Young Rider went to the beginner who appeared to be anything but. In 2020, he made history by becoming the youngest rider in over 100 years to win the Tour de France – A title that was reaffirmed in 2021, adding his name to the Grande Boucle chronicle in gold letters. In 2022 and 2023, however, he was unable to beat Jonas Vingegaard in the Tour de France.

La Vuelta 22 was the confirmation of what many already expected: a large part of the future of Spanish cycling rests on Juan Ayuso’s shoulders. The Spanish rider finished 3rd, earning his position as a grand tour cyclist.