Yesterday he was beaten, a collapse that few saw coming except him. Today, he was the victorious one, the day's undeniable best climber. What sort of Juan Ayuso are we going to get for the rest of this Vuelta a España? The forlorn, sulky one who slides down the lead group quicker than a 80kg sprinter wishing they’d done a few more hill reps in training, or the lightweight mountain whippet who dances on his pedals à la his hero Alberto Contador and thrives on the fervent support from his home crowd?
Ayuso, 23 two days after this race finishes, is a curious cookie. Blessed with prodigious talent, heralded as the Spanish successor to the aforementioned Contador, and boasting the complete physical skillset required to win Grand Tours – climbing, punch, time trialling, positioning – he finished third in his maiden Vuelta a España aged just 19. Since then he’s won Tirreno-Adriatico and Itzulia Basque Country, and this year stages of the Giro d’Italia and now the Vuelta.
But Ayuso appears to lack one key component that would give him the Grand Tour title he craves and so believes he justifies: the ability to be a team player. He has, it’s been reported, a strained relationship with many inside UAE Team Emirates-XRG, including their superstar leader Tadej Pogačar. It’s no coincidence the pair haven’t been at the same race on one single occasion this season. Ayuso sees himself as much of a winner as Pogačar does. Why sacrifice himself for someone else, when it could be him winning?
Ayuso made his decisive move early on the climb to Cerler. Photo by Unipublic / Cxcling / Antonio Baixauli
Stage six of the Vuelta saw Ayuso lose more than seven minutes to the GC cohort, and with Jay Vine up the road winning the stage, his co-leader João Almeida was only left with Marc Soler for support. Twenty-four hours on, burned by his performance in Andorra, Ayuso went in the break and smoked the competition, winning by 1:15. Behind, Almeida again only had Soler for company – and even then Soler attacked in the final kilometre in a bid to gain time.
What will Ayuso do in the coming fortnight? Will he support Almeida in his bid to win the Vuelta, like would ordinarily be expected of him, or will he possibly challenge teammate Vine in the King of the Mountains competition as a consequence of trying to scoop up as many stage wins as possible? It’s the dilemma that comes with the territory of being a team so powerful and so rich in options, but it’s not exactly an easy one to solve. How will Matxin Fernández, UAE’s sports manager who has always viewed Ayuso as his own personal project, manage the situation? Winning the Vuelta, the team’s second Grand Tour of the season, is a far bigger prize than multiple stage wins, but can they control the personal ambitions of Almeida, Ayuso, Vine and, it appears, an on-form Soler?
Ayuso is out of the GC fight barring a spectacular comeback and mistimed chase, but his role in the race is likely to have a significant impact on the outcome of the red jersey. As he crossed the line in Cerler on stage seven, he put his fingers in his ear, a message that said loud and clear: “I don’t listen to the noise. I do what I want.” He most definitely does – the Vuelta is pivoting around him and will continue to do so.
Cover photo: Josep LAGO / AFP via Getty Images
