What on earth are UAE playing at? How Jonas Vingegaard gained crucial seconds after 'crazy' blunder on Stage 19 of La Vuelta 2025

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Super smart move or crazy mistake? This was the conversation after Jonas Vingegaard profited and gained valuable bonus seconds after UAE Team Emirates-XRG were caught napping on Stage 19 of La Vuelta on Friday. Could the four seconds play a crucial role in Saturday's showdown, with Vingegaard holding a 44-second lead over UAE rider Joao Almeida?

‘Where on earth were UAE here?!’ – Vingegaard profits from 'gift' to earn bonus seconds

Video credit: TNT Sports

UAE Team Emirates-XRG were questioned for committing a "crazy" error after allowing red jersey Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) to gain crucial bonus seconds on Stage 19 of La Vuelta on Friday.

It was Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) who stormed to a third victory of this year's Vuelta, but the biggest drama of the day came with 58km to go.

Vingegaard rode up past the UAE riders to take second place in the intermediate sprint in Salamanca, behind Jakub Otruba (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) who was already further up the road.

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The GC leader was able to gain a bonus four seconds, which would have stung UAE rider Joao Almeida who worked so hard to take 10 seconds back in Thursday's time trial.

While the sprint occurred at the time, the TNT Sports commentary team was baffled by UAE's tactics.

"UAE are sleeping, they’re nowhere near," Rob Hatch said on commentary. "Where on earth were UAE here? Vingegaard takes four bonus seconds there and that was a gift."

Hatch added: "What on earth are UAE playing at here at the Vuelta a Espana when it comes to looking after their leader?

"They worked so hard yesterday to get 10 seconds, and they’ve just given four away."

TNT Sports co-commentator Sean Kelly also expressed his shock and added: "Well, this is crazy. You can see the way he was just allowed up and there was no UAE rider around at all. They lost the opportunity there to take the points from him.

"There are certain riders from the UAE team that can sprint quite well. For example, [Rui] Oliveira is a very good sprinter and [Marc] Soler is not bad either. They just got caught rotten there.

'What were UAE doing?' - Breakaway panel on 'smart' Vingegaard earning bonus seconds

Video credit: TNT Sports

"They were just sitting back and not reading the race at all. It’s a crazy one that they didn’t get involved at least and try to get in the mix there, to prevent Vingegaard from taking easy time bonus points."

TNT Sports expert Adam Blythe was also critical of UAE and said: "It’s awful [to think] how bad UAE were in that situation.

"They were completely asleep and there’s no excuses for it. Bonus seconds were there from the start of the day and not being there or saying they were in a bad position, there’s no excuse for it."

'The easiest four seconds you’re ever going to get'

The Breakaway studio also discussed the situation following the stage and Matt Stephens credited Vingegaard and Visma for taking the initiative and making the most of UAE's negligence.

He explained: "It was sneaky, super smart and massively intelligent [from Vingegaard]. What were UAE doing is my question? That’s the easiest four seconds you’re ever going to get.

"I don’t know whether UAE knew that it had a time bonus on it. They weren’t paying attention but Visma made sure that [Matteo] Jorgensen took third spot as well.

‘It was a bit messy’ – Vingegaard delivers verdict on gaining bonus seconds

Video credit: TNT Sports

"I think UAE will be disappointed and there might be a little bit of an enquiry. Maybe the riders are thinking, why didn’t we know the information about that?

"At the start and end of the day, I think Jonas will be thinking ‘blimey’. It was going to be a big battle tomorrow and we’ll know what difference those four seconds will make. It’s absolutely brilliant for Visma."

Vingegaard is in the driving seat heading into Stage 20 on Saturday but he said the bonus seconds gained on Friday won't be decisive.

"It was a bit messy before the sprint," Vingegaard told reporters after the stage. "We were up there and decided to go for it and we had to be up there anyway to stay out of wind trouble. We went for it and luckily I took the four seconds.

"It’s super nice but I would be surprised if it’s the four seconds which decides the Vuelta."

Watch and stream the remainder of the cycling season, including the climax of La Vuelta, on TNT Sports and discovery+

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