UAE celebrate Vuelta España with three stage wins and mountains jersey for Vine

UAE Team Emirates end another year of Grand Tour racing with a colourful three week journey at the Vuelta España which saw a fair share of glory for the Emirati squad.

Brandon McNulty opened the race in the best way possible by storming to victory in the TT and pulling on the red leader’s jersey in Lisbon.

Though the red jersey would be relinquished and GC hopes would be dashed through the DNF of Joao Almeida through illness, the team would reinvent itself to take three stage wins through McNulty, Adam Yates and Marc Soler.

Soler would be the chief animator of the race and went home with the Grand-Combative prize which was awarded to the most aggressive rider over the three weeks.

Jay Vine confirmed his successful comeback to racing after injury by climbing the podium in Madrid as leader of the mountains classification.

In the absence of Almeida Pavel Sivakov took the mantle as the GC-man, battling to 9th place overall at 10’04’’ behind overall winner Primoz Roglic (Red Bull Bora).

Isaac del Toro and Filippo Baroncini made a significant step in their careers by completing their first Grand Tours, with Baroncini even securing 4th on the closing TT around the streets of Madrid.

 
Marco Marcato (Sports Director) : “All things considered we have to be very happy with this Vuelta. We set-out to be active in the race every day and I think it was the right strategy for us. Unfortunately we lost our leader Almeida at the beginning of the race but we adapted our plans and we can say it worked out well. We can be proud of our riders.”

Stage 21 results

1.Stefan Kung (Groupama FDJ) 26:28
2.Primoz Roglic (Red Bull Bora) +30’’
3.Matteo Cattaneo (Trex Quickstep) +42’’
4.Filippo Baroncini (UAE Team Emirates) +43’’

 
Final GC results

1.Primoz Roglic (Red Bull Bora) 81:49:18
2.Ben O Connor (Decathlon AG2R) +2’36’’
3.Enric Mas (Movistar) +3’13’’
9.Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates) +10’04’’