From winning in the Algarve to crashing out in yellow - why Juan Ayuso’s first year at Lidl-Trek fell short
Cycling
Juan Ayuso’s first year at Lidl-Trek fell short of his expectations. The Spaniard left UAE Team Emirates – XRG for a fresh start, hoping to establish himself as one of Lidl-Trek’s leading riders. He won the Volta ao Algarve on his debut for the team, but the rest of his season brought withdrawals, below-par results and little chance to build any momentum.
Given the ambitions Ayuso brought to Lidl-Trek, his performances drew scrutiny from outside the team and from within it. His results tell only part of the story, though. A succession of crashes and illnesses disrupted his preparation and made it difficult to race consistently.
Paris-Nice ends in a crash while Ayuso is in yellow
The first major setback came at Paris-Nice. Ayuso had started the race well and took the overall lead after Lidl-Trek finished second in the stage three team time trial. Coming so soon after his Algarve win, the yellow jersey was another encouraging sign for both rider and team.
Ayuso was in a position to fight for the overall when he crashed heavily on the following stage. He had to abandon, losing a chance to show what he could do in one of the biggest stage races of the spring.
The crash also interrupted his race programme. A season that had started with an overall win in Portugal was already proving harder to piece together than he had expected.
Juan Ayuso at Itzulia Basque Country 2026
Illness forces Ayuso out of Itzulia Basque Country
Itzulia Basque Country gave Ayuso another chance to find his race form and show that he could compete at the front of a WorldTour stage race. Instead, he fell ill and withdrew on stage four.
It was his second major withdrawal in the space of a month. After the crash at Paris-Nice, he needed race days to rebuild his confidence and find some consistency. Illness cost him the chance to finish another of the key races on his spring calendar.
Another illness disrupts his Tour de France build-up
Ayuso returned to racing at the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, where he finished third overall. A podium was a respectable result, but Isaac del Toro was clearly stronger and won the race by more than a minute from his former teammate. With the Tour de France approaching, there were still questions about how close Ayuso could get to the best over three weeks.
He fell ill again around the end of the race, at an awkward point in his preparation for the Tour. It was another interruption just as he was trying to put together a sustained block of work before his biggest race of the year.
Ayuso went on to finish seventh overall at the Tour de France. Many riders would consider that an excellent result. For a rider who had joined Lidl-Trek with ambitions of challenging for Grand Tours, it felt like a missed opportunity. Seventh showed he could still finish among the leading riders over three weeks, even with an interrupted build-up, but he remained some way short of the level he had hoped to reach.
Read also
A Quebec crash compounds a difficult end to the season
The final part of the season offered little chance to change that assessment. Ayuso finished outside the top 10 at the World Championships and fell short of expectations at both the European Championships and Il Lombardia.
There was another crash before those races, in the finale of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec. Ayuso was forced off his line in the sprint and came down, interrupting his run into the late-season one-day races.
Bad luck explains some of his results. The succession of crashes and illnesses also took away the stretches of uninterrupted training and racing he needed to build form.
2027 gives Ayuso a chance to prove himself
Ayuso’s first season at Lidl-Trek fell below the expectations that came with his departure from UAE Team Emirates – XRG. The win in the Algarve showed what the move could offer, but he struggled to sustain that form and either withdrew or finished below his own ambitions at several of the biggest races on his calendar.
That assessment has to take account of the season he was actually able to race. He crashed out of Paris-Nice in yellow, illness took him out of Itzulia and disrupted his build-up to the Tour, and he came down again in Quebec. His second year at Lidl-Trek gives him another chance to show what he can do with a more settled run of training and racing.
Juan LarraCycling Journalist
Juan Larra is a writer for Cyclinguptodate and editor-in-chief of Ciclismoaldia, where he has played a central role since its inception. Under his leadership, the website has become a trusted source for professional cycling coverage, offering in-depth analysis, news, and feature stories.
A sports journalist with over 20 years of experience, Juan earned his degree in Journalism from the University of Seville in 2007. He began his career covering a wide range of sports—including football, basketball, Formula 1, MotoGP, tennis, and cycling—for platforms such as the official La Liga app, Vodafone and Movistar websites, NBA Blogdebasket, and Cadena Cope, honing his skills in writing and editorial management.
In addition to his work at Ciclismoaldia, Juan contributes to Cyclinguptodate and serves as editor-in-chief for the tennis-focused site Tenisaldia. Throughout his career, he has conducted exclusive interviews with cyclists and sports figures, provided detailed analysis of competitions ranging from local Spanish races to major international events, and acted as a special correspondent at prestigious races including Paris-Roubaix, the Tour de France, and the Vuelta a España.
Juan’s combination of experience, expertise, and direct access to athletes has established him—and the platforms he leads—as authoritative voices in professional cycling.
claps 0visitors 0
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- POG1, another nice doc about our favourite, I watched most of it with a big smile on my face (except for the bits about his crashes 😢 obvs!).Lozza14-11-2026
- Martinez had a good year! 5th at the Tour was a great result for him, albeit largely through getting in successful breaks, but he held it better than Pidcock who’d done the same.Lozza14-11-2026
- guess what Valgren, you're 34, and no you're not good enough. sorry to say.mij14-11-2026
- I'm a sepp fan and like to think he earned that LOL, indulge me : ) I think Jonas was fine. Roglic did not want to concede to Sepp. and I don't think you ever attack your own teammate in the leaders jersey if he is holding his own, which Sepp just about was.mij14-11-2026
- enough time? he's 24 years old. He's won 10 races over the last 2 years and some are significant. I won't argue about his attitude being good - it needs to improve. But with some coaching and mentorship he has a lot of winning ahead of him and has plenty of time to win a GT. I don't think he will ever beat Tadej, but everyone else is fair game Look at Mas and Valverde - they were 31 and 29, respectively, when they won the Vuelta.mij14-11-2026
- Pogacar has a fine head on his shoulders.Careful investments and a couple of coffee shops sounds like a wonderful way to chill after an intense career.Stay healthy GOAT.
Brucegel14-11-2026 - I live in Maribor.PogiSloFans14-11-2026
- I live in Ljubljana and often go on trips in the surrounding area, where I frequently see young cyclists in 'Pogi Team' jerseys training, either alone or in groups. By simply motivating so many young people to take up cycling, Tadej has already achieved something truly significant.Velijo14-11-2026
- That's an excellent point. It's interesting that Vader came to that realization only after he learned that his contract wasn't going to be renewed.
santiagobenites14-11-2026 - Indeed! A reluctant gift maybe. Even more reluctant gift from Roglic! Tho I can’t see that Rog would have beaten Ving anyway.Lozza14-11-2026
Loading
Write a comment