"Hopefully I can put myself in the lead" - Juan Ayuso looks to strike at queen stage and head towards overall victory
Cycling
Juan Ayuso faces the queen stage of the Tirreno Adriatico in a favourable position to race on and win the overall classification, but without the weight of carring the race throughout the day. He is 22 seconds behind Filippo Ganna and has Antonio Tiberi, Derek Gee, Pello Bilbao, Jai Hindley, Mikel Landa, Adam Yates, Richard Carapaz and company behind him. He is the top favorite to take the lead and that is his goal.
He acknowledged in the Eurosport microphones that today on stage 6 to Frontignano is the key stage for the overall and that he is clear about what he wants to achieve: "The day that at the beginning of the week was D-Day, the one we were always waiting for, but because the weather has been so bad every day has been much harder than expected, today is the day where the differences can be made, hopefully I can put myself in the lead."
Ayuso has been very active on both hilly stages, countering multiple attacks and showing strong form to back up his second place in the overall classification. Despite doing a strong race thus far, Ganna is not expected to resist today's summit finish with the very best, which would put Ayuso in the virtual blue jersey ahead of tomorrow's finale in San Benedetto del Tronto.
He was asked if it would be enough to defend himself and if he would also want to win the stage. The UAE Team Emirates rider made it clear that Filippo Ganna is still ahead of him and that it won't be easy to take the leader's jersey from him: "Yes, well, but we also have to let Ganna go and seeing how he's going we'll have to set a strong pace because if he's not going to hang in there."
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🇮🇹 Five stages done, two to go.#TirrenoAdriatico #WeAreUAE pic.twitter.com/oFXg7gpk3A
— @UAE-TeamEmirates (@TeamEmiratesUAE) March 14, 2025
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- Jonas won T-A last tear and wanted to do P-N this year. Jorgensen also wanted to do it, he declined every si gle opportunity to be a solo leader, eevry stage race Jonas doesn't do, Girovappaxbipmv16-03-2025
- I agree, he either needs a surprise attack in the final, win a sprint or just somehow overpower everyonevappaxbipmv16-03-2025
- Did old man Bruyneel make this point before Jonas crashed out?Renz16-03-2025
- Good win for Ayuso. He has appeared a bit inconsistent on mountain stages in the past; absolutely brilliant on some but then cracking on others.Cooldude16-03-2025
- A little caution is understandable. Just ask Roglic.Cooldude16-03-2025
- Jorgenson needs races to improve, he won Paris Nice last year, he should have been given open rein this year. He rode his guts out for Jonas last year, Jonas just needs to build form for the Tour. Give Matteo a race without a co captain.awp16-03-2025
- Exactly. Two leaders of this caliber at the same race makes no sense.Pedalmasher16-03-2025
- Jonas attacking Matteo< who was the GC leader, on the first summit finish was ridiculous! Karma came back and bit JV in the a$$ !frieders316-03-2025
- Pidcocks Ineos Grenadier? Nice proofing lolmij16-03-2025
- Agreed. Why have these two together? Give Jorgenson his own race. They have no one in Italy for GC that’s legit and provenmij16-03-2025