Adam Blythe blasts Juan Ayuso's Vuelta excuses: "A load of rubbish - He’s a GC rider, that’s what he is employed to do”

Juan Ayuso may have smiled his way through losing almost twelve minutes on stage six of the 2025 Vuelta a Espana, but not everyone is convinced by his explanation. TNT Sports analyst Adam Blythe believes the 22-year-old Spaniard cannot simply brush away the performance as part of a pre-planned, low-key campaign.

Ayuso insisted after the finish that he had never truly been targeting the general classification in Spain. He explained that his call-up had come late, once Tadej Pogacar decided not to ride, and that his focus for the second half of the season remained the World Championships in Kigali.

“It’s been like this since day one – my original plan wasn’t to go for the GC,” Ayuso said in the aftermath. “The team asked me to give it a go out of respect, so I tried. But I haven’t been feeling good, and I’ve just gone with the flow.”

The UAE Team Emirates - XRG rider pointed to Almeida’s leadership and the chance to hunt for a stage as his remaining priorities, dismissing the time loss as nothing like the bitter disappointment of abandoning the Giro d’Italia in May. “Today I just let it go and I’m looking ahead,” he added.

Blythe, however, was far less forgiving in his TNT Sports analysis. The former pro believes Ayuso’s claims not to be riding for GC do not tally with the scale of his collapse. “I think he said he wasn’t in for the GC – I think it’s a load of rubbish,” Blythe said. “Even if he’s not on 100% form, he’s still better than he was yesterday. Even on 80% or 90%, he still should have been in the 25 guys that are in front of him. Obviously it was a very bad day, but he’s a GC rider and that’s what he is employed to do.”

The ex-British champion went further, highlighting a pattern of underperformance at Grand Tours this season. “Ultimately, this year he has not performed in the Giro, he’s not performed here. I don’t know if pressure is getting to him – that dual leadership with Isaac del Toro at the Giro, coming here with João Almeida in that dual leader role again. But he’s not coping with it well. Maybe a little bit mentally tired, I don’t know.”

Blythe also pointed to the optics of Ayuso’s race radio use, suggesting he appeared disengaged. “It’s almost like you pull it out when you’re not interested in what’s going on. If he’s not a leader within that race normally, you keep it in because you want to know what’s happening.”

Nor, as Blythe's colleague Matt Stephens noted, did UAE Team Emirates rally around their young Spaniard when he cracked. “There was not one team-mate dropped back to see if he was okay. There was quite an emphatic ‘no, he’s not going to be GC’.”