Remco and Jonas on Vuelta TT; Juan Ayuso profiled; Vuelta flirts with muddy disaster; Jumbo-Visma's relentless winning machine; big moves for Steels & Backstedt

RadioCycling

As the Vuelta a España caravan pauses for its first rest day and the chance to wipe off the mud and dirt it picked up at the Cruz de Caravaca summit finish, these are RadioCycling's headlines...
Is the Vuelta organisation's better judgement going off course? After yet another stage that left questions hanging over the race directors, we discuss the muddy mayhem of the Cruz de Caravaca. Was the decision to neutralise the final kilometres an over-reaction or were they right to avoid a situation where the hopes of some GC contenders might have gone slip sliding away?
Well-drilled and relentlessly brilliant, we shine a focus on Jumbo-Visma's stage race-winning machine, which has lifted three of its riders into contention for the Vuelta title and is carrying them towards the first-ever Grand Tour Grand Slam. Jumbo DS Marc Reef explains the work and thinking behind the Dutch squad's never-ending search for perfection and why its riders buy into this philosophy.
The Vuelta recommences on Tuesday with its sole individual time trial. We hear from world TT champion Remco Evenepoel, who tells us about the course in Valladolid and confesses that he's hoping to replicate the kind of gaps he created in the equivalent test last year. We also get a very succinct take from Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard.
Like Jumbo-Visma, UAE Team Emirates have three riders in contention for the Vuelta title. Juan Ayuso is arguably the pick of them, and in this episode we throw a spotlight on him. The 20-year-old Spaniard tells us about his disrupted build-up to this race, his belief in his chances of victory, his growing bond with his one-time racing hero Alberto Contador, and the foundation and junior team he's establishing to enable others to follow in his footsteps.
We also turn our attention away from the Vuelta and towards the women's peloton, where two extremely promising British riders have been the subject of intriguing transfers. We hear from relative racing newbie Claire Steels about her move to Movistar as replacement for the all-conquering Annemiek van Vleuten. We also get the lowdown from Canyon-SRAM team manager Ronny Lauke on the arrival of the prodigiously talented Zoe Backstedt.

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