The UAE Emirates XRG secured its third consecutive victory in this Vuelta a España. After winning the team time trial in Figueres and Vine's success in the first mountain stage, Ayuso's victory followed. After accumulating a significant gap from his rivals, the Spaniard proved he could do something important at Cerler.

"I'm not surprised by how Juan won," Almeida said after the race. "He is a great rider of class and is incredibly strong. He deserves it. He has had ups and downs and a quite tough road. I think he deserved to win like this, and I congratulate him."

Joao Almeida finished at the line with Vingegaard and the red jersey Traeen, with a general classification deficit of 8" behind Vingegaard and 2'41" from the leader. "These three victories have represented truly fantastic days for the entire team. We must be happy with what we have done so far."

In the finale, Almeida was with Vingegaard and Ciccone and wanted to see his rivals' intentions before arriving at the finish line with them.

"I saw they didn't really want to aim for a difficult finish. I asked Marc Soler to pull a bit and try. But I thought the climb would be a bit tougher, to be honest. But that's how it went, I tried, maybe there was some margin for someone, but the others didn't want to collaborate, and in the end, that's how it went."

Almeida seems to be in excellent form and this season has achieved great results, winning races like the Tour of the Basque Country, Tour de Romandie, and Tour of Switzerland. At the Tour de France, he was supposed to be Pogacar's key man but was forced to withdraw. Now, however, he is ready to win the Vuelta and, day by day, his condition is improving.

"I've felt good every day, so I think it's a good sign to continue in the race. Now I can't wait for the next challenging days. We came here to have a good Vuelta and we'll try to get results every day."