Pavel Sivakov and Luke Rowe have both said they expected to make the Ineos Grenadiers Vuelta team, having built towards it for months, and have expressed their upset and annoyance at not being picked for the Spanish Grand Tour.
Sivakov is leaving the team at year end, for UAE Team Emirates, but said he still fully expected to ride La Vuelta, adding he felt like he was "just a number" in the eyes of Ineos Grenadiers and "a pawn".
Rowe, now 33 years, was once looked to as the experienced road captain of the team, but has now not been picked for any Grand Tour this year and was clearly upset at his omission from the Vuelta team. He said when management called him to tell him he was not picked, he felt "anger" and "hurt".
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“I’ve gone all in for this Vuelta, and I didn’t make the cut,” he said on his and Geraint Thomas's Watts Ocuring podcast. “If I’m honest, I’m pretty fucking gutted actually. For the last four months, it has been all towards this. I’ve raced, done some nice races, I’ve trained really well, and all the signs were pointing in the right direction.
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“Maybe it’s a bit of naivety, really, that I thought I was more in the door than I really was. When they called me, your first reaction is, ‘Oh for fuck sake’, and a bit of anger. Deep down, it’s pretty gutting, and it does hurt not to make the cut. But, you know, they’ve got eight great blokes there.”
He added when he got the call he told his wife he was going out for the night drinking, which he did. He had a hangover day the next day and then said it was time to dust himself down and get on with life.
Sivakov sounded less inclined to forgive and forget, though he said he accepted management in cycling teams have tough choices to make. “I have to say the last week I was dealt a severe blow. I was told that I would not do the Vuelta, which was very difficult," he told L'Équipe.
"This summer I spent a month and a half at altitude and three weeks with the Vuelta team. Then we all went to the Tour of Pologne together. It went well, very well indeed. Then I immediately returned to altitude to prepare for the Vuelta. I think I was in the best conditions of the whole season, in my opinion even better than before the Giro, and then it went like this.
"I've been with the team for six years and everyone knows I'm leaving, but that's cycling. We are just a number, pawns. That's how I see it. It makes you understand that sometimes management has to make difficult decisions. At that moment I was shattered, but have since recovered. I want to take advantage of all the work done this summer and try to do something between now and the end of the season."
