'A not very human decision' - Scaroni questions UAE’s ruthless dominance
Adam Yates won, Jay Vine finished third, and UAE Team Emirates-XRG once again turned a late-season race into a masterclass in control. The Trofeo Tessile & Moda in Piemonte, usually a lively and unpredictable autumn classic, followed a familiar script: UAE dictated, the rest reacted. Their dominance was complete, and for some, perhaps too complete.
In the final meters, Adam Yates pulled clear of Mathys Rondel to take the win, while Jay Vine completed the podium in third. Seven seconds later, Christian Scaroni crossed the line in fourth, an encouraging result for the XDS-Astana rider just a day after finishing fifteenth at Il Lombardia.
“I suffered a lot in the opening kilometres,” Scaroni admitted. “I still had Lombardy in my legs. I knew I would have to get through that first hour, even on the flat. I asked my teammates to stay close, and they did it perfectly.”
“When we reached the climb, my legs started to come around, but UAE were really strong and had more riders there,” he explained. “They began attacking from every side, and when Yates and Rondel went, I wasn’t sharp enough to follow. Chumil and I tried to keep a rhythm, thinking more about the podium than about catching Yates.”
In that chase for third place, there was even a brief exchange with UAE. “I asked if they could leave us the podium, but they also wanted the third spot,” Scaroni said. “When I tried to get closer to Vine, Sivakov was always on my wheel. In the end, if they’re that strong, there’s nothing you can do.”
The frustration was understandable. “I’m a bit disappointed, because a podium would have given our team some visibility,” he continued. “Today, they were simply better. We take this fourth place and look ahead to the next two races.”
What stayed with him, though, was the way UAE handled the finale. “When they told me they also wanted the podium, I honestly thought it was a not very human decision,” he said. “If you’ve already won the race, I don’t see why you’d take away that bit of light from a team like Burgos, or from us.”
Still, Scaroni didn’t lose sight of the bigger picture. “In the end, it’s their choice. Whether you agree or not, everyone races their own way, and they did what was asked of them. That’s fine.”
Scaroni will close his season with the Giro del Veneto and the Veneto Classic, while UAE Team Emirates XRG continue their record-breaking 2025 campaign. With 94 victories and counting, they have broken every modern record and extended the boundaries of what control looks like in cycling.
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