Juan Ayuso pulled out of Itzulia Basque Country on Thursday, with his Lidl-Trek team confirming on social media that he had abandoned due to stomach issues.
The champion of the 2024 Basque Country race took the start on a hilly stage 4, but got off his bike mid-way on the 167.2km route due to an illness that he said troubled him since Tuesday.
"The second stage was super tough and I wasn't feeling very well. On top of that, I had pretty bad stomach problems yesterday,” he told CyclingProNet at the start in Galdakao.
He tried to make light of the situation saying, "I think I rode harder to the bus after the finish yesterday than I rode during the stage itself.”
Only days ago the Spanish climber was tagged as one of the race favourites, but he opened his campaign with what he told CyclingProNet was "one of the worst TT performances I can remember". He would not come close to the podium on stage 1's hilly 13.8-kilometre time trial in Bilbao, experiencing a severe blow by losing 1:16 to stage winner Paul Seixas (Decathlon CGA CGM).
The game of catchup to the French race leader improved slightly on stage 2, as Ayuso moved from 38th overall to 16th, but Seixas stayed on the gas and rode away from everyone for a second stage win and a larger time gap from all GC contenders. It was now 1:59 between Seixas and second-placed Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), while the margin had grown to 3:55 for Ayuso.
While Ayuso admitted he suffered on the bike on stage 3, he was able to complete the stage. Another pre-race favourite, Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who also lost a chunk of time to Seixas in the time trial, abandoned on Wednesday from injuries suffered in a crash.
"At the moment, I’m not feeling great either," Ayuso said at the start in his comments to CyclingProNet and confirmed by other media. "It’s been a few tough days, but I hope my body recovers so I can still be of use to the team for the last few days.”
Had Ayuso been healthy, stage 4 offered the terrain he could have exploited, with seven categorised climbs, to make up ground in the GC battle, or even go for a stage win. Instead, he was unable to complete his second stage race in a row, having suffered a heavy crash at Paris-Nice on stage 4.
Of the three stage race starts Ayuso has made this year, he has only completed one, winning the GC title at Volta ao Algarve in February.
Lidl-Trek continues at Itzulia Basque Country with Mattia Skjelmose in fifth in the general classification and sixth in the points classification, with two days remaining.
