Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) may be living out a “dream come true” as he makes his debut at the Tour de France in support of GC leader Tadej Pogačar but his future ambitions are bigger and it's taking the yellow jersey one day further down the line that he’s really dreaming of doing.
The Spaniard is one of cycling’s top prospects having finished third overall at the Vuelta at just 19, the youngest ever podium finisher in the race. He was also two years younger than Pogačar when he made his debut at the Tour in 2020 and snatched overall from Primož Roglič on the stage 20 time trial up to La Planche des Belles Filles.
With that said, there is no question of Ayuso’s loyalty to the Slovenian as he makes up just part of the Emirati squad’s stellar climbing support for the Pogačar in the Tour, alongside Adam Yates and João Almeida. Being in a team that wins the race outright "would be a good start," he agrees, towards his own career goal.
“It’s a dream come true. I’ve said many times that it’s a race I went to see when I was on vacation with my family when I was 10 or 12 years old,” Ayuso told Cyclingnews at the Critérium du Dauphiné earlier this summer.
“It’s the biggest race in cycling and it’s the biggest dream. My dream is to personally win the Tour one day. But to race my first Tour in a team that wins it would be a good start.”
Ayuso and Pogačar have never raced a stage race together despite being on the same team since late 2021 when the Spanish rider joined the WorldTour, only racing as teammates on a handful of occasions such as last year’s Giro dell'Emilia and the 2022 Flèche Wallonne.
But Ayuso believes the pair can form a strong combination on Italian and French roads at the Tour, taking inspiration from Yates’s scoring a career-best podium at last year’s race while riding for Pogačar.
“If I have the legs then I think I can help him. I’ve never raced a stage race with him so it’s difficult to say but everything seems easy with him, so I think it will be alright,” said Ayuso.
“If Tadej is… you can’t call it secure, but if he’s comfortable with a lead he has and then I can also get my opportunity like Adam [Yates] had last year and try and go for the podium or for stage victories, then that will be super nice.”
Ayuso was speaking without the context of Jonas Vingegaard’s confirmed return at the Tour and he abandoned the Dauphiné a few days later after hurting both hips during the high-speed mass crash on stage 5. Although these both lessened his chances, he recovered enough to make the eight-man roster.
After scoring a mixed bag of results in 2024 where he was second-best only to Vingegaard at Tirreno-Adriatico, took the GC win at Itzulia Basque Country but finished a disappointing fifth at the Tour de Romandie, Ayuso believes it’s a Tour parcours that suits him.
“I think the Tour this year is a good parcours for me. One of the time trials is flat, where I think I can perform well and one is hard, where I think I can defend myself,” he said.
“Hard stages are hard like they are everywhere else so I think it’s a good race for me and I also cope well the heat.”
That said, there was one clear UAE Team Emirates goal when asked what his actual role was going to be.
“I think all the team is focussed on that,[Pogačar doing the Giro-Tour double] and that’s what we’re racing to achieve.”
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