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…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…