Just 19 when the Vuelta a España ended in Madrid last September, Juan Ayuso’s third place finish saw the UAE Team Emirates rider make history as the race’s youngest ever podium finisher, and the youngest of any Grand Tour in 118 years. But this August, Ayuso has got even more ambitious targets.
“I’d like to improve on my GC placing and get a stage win,” Ayuso said in his pre-race press conference.
“I will be fighting to do that in a stronger field and the route is much harder than last year, too, particularly the third week. But although I would have liked to have raced more this year than I have done, perhaps now that can be an advantage, especially as the last part is so hard.”
The 2023 season has been a roller coaster for Ayuso, with a suspected neuralgia that affected a tendon in his lower leg making for a considerable delay to his campaign. After his season debut in late April, he won time trials at the Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse, as well as taking second in the latter race.
He then came frustratingly close to victory in the Spanish Nationals only to be foiled in the TT by an untimely mechanical, and he subsequently crashed in two Basque one-day races, the Villafranca Ordizia and GP Getxo this summer, suffering minor injuries in both.
Now in Barcelona for the Vuelta a España start, and riding alongside established local stars Enric Mas (Movistar) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious), Ayuso will fly the flag for the country’s younger generation in his home Grand Tour.
In the absence of Spain’s other up-and-coming GC racer Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers), who finished seventh last year and recently took fifth and an Alpine stage win in the Tour de France, the spotlight will be on Ayuso with even more intensity than last year. But he doesn’t appear too troubled by that.
“I’m doing well and I’m ready,” Ayuso told reporters. “The build-up went well, and if it hadn´t been for those two crashes in Ordizia and Getxo, it would have been perfect. Fortunately, neither of them produced any long-term consequences.”
Having made history last year in the Vuelta, Ayuso recognised he was feeling a degree of pressure, “especially because of being on the podium in 2022.”
“I haven’t raced so much, which is not ideal. But I’ve come here finally feeling I’m nearly at 100 percent and hopefully I’ll be able to build on that.”
After so many setbacks this year, Ayuso says that he is “mentally a lot stronger” as a result. But that’s not the only change.
“Physically, I have a few more watts, hopefully, compared to last year, and above all I’m feeling more experienced,” he said. “I’m a lot more confident about it all.”
Ayuso will not be the sole GC leader in the UAE team, either. Joao Almeida, whose third place overall in the Giro d’Italia represented a breakthrough for the Portuguese teammate, is another major challenger for the overall. Almeida’s fifth place in the Vuelta last year was somewhat eclipsed by his teammate's podium finish in Madrid. But at the very least, Almeida's presence on the Barcelona start line means UAE will once again be able to use a two-pronged GC strategy on the roads of Spain this summer.
“My preparation last year for the Vuelta was not ideal at all, I had numerous setbacks,” said Almeida, who recently placed a close second at the Tour de Pologne. “This year I’m going much better, so let’s see how we get on because the peloton is pretty strong.”
Ayuso described himself as being “thinner than ever” in an interview with Spanish newspaper AS, where he also welcomed Almeida’s presence as co-leader. “And I hope that’s not going to be a problem. There are two of us in UAE for the GC and given the opposition, that can only be a good thing,” he said.
“Probably neither João nor me are at the level of Vingegaard and Primoz Roglič or Evenepoel, but if we race well together, we can fight.
“With the exception of Pogačar, we’re practically all here, the top five or six riders out there. It’s going to be good for my head to race against all of them, to know where I stand in relation to them, and how much I need to improve to be up there.”
Regardless of what happens in the battle with the Belgian star, like Evenepoel, he will be able to use the 2023 Vuelta as a benchmark for a future participation in the Tour.
“Of course, and I’d even go so far as to say that this year’s lineup is even more impressive than in the Tour,” he said. “So when I do go, I’ll have added confidence.”
But first there's the Vuelta, and while the race’s first week stages in his home region of Valencia, where he grew up, will be a boost to his morale, the heightened local pressure of 2023 compared to 2022 was not a problem, he insisted.
“This year there are greater expectations about what I can do, but that’s part of the game, and I think it’s good in a way because it means I did well last year. I feel that pressure is a way of motivating myself. People believe in me and that’s always got its good side.”
