After a challenging Tour de France, Lidl-Trek co-leader Juan Ayuso's program for the second half of the season looks set to centre on a series of one-day races, beginning with the Canadian WorldTour Classics and likely taking in the RUCI Road World Championships in the same country.
According to Spanish newspaper AS, Ayuso will not be taking part in the upcoming Vuelta a España, something he had already announced at the start of the season. Ayuso's absence in his home Grand Tour will be noted, all the same.
Spain's leading rider and one of the most dynamic racers in the current peloton, Ayuso took third in the Vuelta back in 2022 aged just 19, thereby becoming the youngest-ever podium finisher in the race and the second-youngest podium finisher in the history of any Grand Tour.
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Since then, Ayuso finished fourth in the Vuelta in 2023 and then last year took two stage wins in an edition marked, in his case, by the drama surrounding his exit from UAE Team Emirates at the end of 2025.
Rather than take part in the Vuelta for a fourth time, AS reported, and after a challenging Tour de France where he faded in the second half and finished seventh overall, Ayuso will instead take part in the Canadian WorldTour races: the GP de Québec (September 11) and the GP de Montréal (September 13).
Ayuso's track record in both events is limited to the one year he didn't do the Vuelta, 2024, where he finished 89th in Québec and then recorded a DNF in Montréal. But despite these unremarkable results for Ayuso, the latter race was a major success for his team at the time, UAE, thanks to a trademark solo breakaway triumph by teammate Tadej Pogačar.
After the Canadian races, Ayuso is apparently aiming to stay on for the World Championships, where if selected to race for Spain – as is very likely – he'd aim to better his eighth place of 2025 and 26th of 2024 in the road race. After that, Ayuso is due to return to Europe in time to head to the UEC Road European Championships in Slovenia on October 4, again in Spanish colours.
Ayuso's program will then see him take part in Il Lombardia on October 10, another race which seems highly suited to his combination of climbing skills, attacking style, and powerful accelerations.
As AS pointed out, Ayuso has never taken part in a Monument before, despite his promising results as a one-day racer – as well as in stage racing – so far. But this autumn should see the 23-year-old set the record straight at last, and it could come after some top results in other major one-day races, too.
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