At 23, Juan Ayuso already has Grand Tour stage wins and WorldTour triumphs aplenty in his palmarès. But there can little doubt that both in terms of his immediate past and his short-term future, victories number 17 and 18 of his career at the Volta ao Algarve on Sunday have a very special place in the list.
“I wanted to win as early as possible for my new employer,” Ayuso said according to Nieuwsblad, after claiming both the final day’s win atop the Malhão and cementing his final victory overall. And on a day when that new employer, Lidl-Trek, also captured the final stage of the UAE Tour thanks to Jonathan Milan, with seven victories to date the German squad can move into March and the main European calendar with the pressure already significantly lower than some of their biggest rivals.
There were bound to be questions as to whether Ayuso could continue to rack up the triumphs after leaving UAE Team Emirates-XRG, both the most prolifically successful team of 2025 and 2024 and with the number one rider in the world, Tadej Pogačar, in its ranks. But the answers were there for all to see on the slopes of the Alto do Foia, where Ayuso took the lead and again in the triumph on the Malhão. And if finishing in yellow is always good news, to do with your arms in the air for one last victory, is even better.
“The conclusion is more about how good the team rode, how well protected I was, not only today, but all week,” said Ayuso.
“Not everything was under control but they still managed to come back from this and put me in a position to be able to…
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