"I almost got six seconds": Juan Ayuso jumps ahead of his GC rivals before Paris-Nice team time trial

Two stages into his Paris–Nice debut, Juan Ayuso’s bid for the overall remains firmly on track. The Spanish rider avoided one of the many crashes that marked the start of the race and also banked bonus seconds on stage 2, a result that keeps him well placed on GC.

The Lidl–Trek leader explained afterwards to media on site — including Danish TV2 — that he was forced off the road to dodge a pile-up. Ayuso took it with good humour, implying that, while it’s never pleasant to be caught in such chaos, he reacted in time to avoid anything worse.

He recounted that he had to improvise mid-stage to stay clear of a mass fall. "Today I had to play farmer, I avoided a crash by riding through the grass, so I managed to save it," he joked, referring to his brief detour off the tarmac in northern France.

The incident had no sporting consequence and Ayuso finished the stage without losses, especially valuable in an opening block defined by nerves and splits in the bunch.

Beyond dodging the crash, Ayuso clawed back time at the intermediate sprint at kilometre 140 in Fromont. He placed second behind Vito Braet and ahead of race leader Luke Lamperti, adding four bonus seconds.

He detailed how the move unfolded. "I thought the break would sweep up the seconds, but when we saw they were in play the team dropped me off perfectly and I just had to do the final hundred metres," he said. Ayuso even came close to the maximum bonus. "I almost got six seconds, so it was very tight. But I’m happy," he added.

Thanks to that intermediate sprint, the Lidl–Trek rider jumped twenty places on GC to sixth, a position that could prove valuable ahead of the 23.3-kilometre team time trial, the first major test for the overall.

Starting ahead of several GC rivals, including Jonas Vingegaard, could offer a small edge on a key day. "It’s always better to be in front than behind," Ayuso said when asked about the overall. "Tomorrow is an important day with the team and we’ll see how we finish. Four seconds is quite a bit," he concluded.