"Almost all the responsibility fell on me" - Unsupported Juan Ayuso controls rivals in ferocious Tirreno-Adriatico finale

Stage 3 of the Tirreno Adriatico 2025 had a tremendous finish. Despite the attacks of Filippo Ganna, Richard Carapaz or Ben Healy, the victory fell on the most unexpected side. Andrea Vendrame won the sprint. Juan Ayuso spoke after the stage after a good performance that saw him counter plenty attacks, but he wished he would've had more support from UAE Team Emirates - XRG.

It was indeed a tricky finale where a lot of attacks were expected, since there was no true favourite to win the stage. Ben Healy was the first to attack and Ayuso himself was the first to directly respond. Richard Carapaz did the same, and inbetween there were several riders jumping across gaps.

It became a dangerous situation despite the climb lacking the steepness to make true differences. Ayuso felt the responsibility to answer to many: "I tried to control the peloton, there were many attacks and I was alone".

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"Almost all the responsibility fell on me. Maybe it's my fault because I took on too much, but I didn't want strong riders like Ben Healy, Richard Carapaz, Tom Pidcock or even Filippo Ganna to catch me (in the overall classification, ed.), he explains. "Derek Gee was also very strong. I had to respond to all these attacks to control the finish".

Ayuso did ultimately go over the climb with no-one having time over the peloton, but then despite it's size he still went on to work to bring back Filippo Ganna in his late attack. His plan did come together as no-one arrived gaining time on the peloton. Felix Grosschartner and Adam Yates finished in the peloton but were unseen in the finale, whilst Isaac del Toro lost important time.

Finally, the young UAE star spoke about the bad weather and why he came out to meet the media fully tucked in: "I'm still freezing, sorry to everyone for seeing me like this completely covered, but I'm still freezing, I just want to take a hot shower".

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