"I finish here as the first among humans" - Juan Ayuso praises Jonas Vingegaard after another phenomenal performance
CyclingSunday, 10 March 2024 at 01:00
Once again, Jonas Vingegaard was simply beyond everyone's reach at the penultimate stage of this year's Tirreno-Adriatico. Behind the phenomenal Dane, there was a fierce battle for second place. And it was UAE Team Emirates' Juan Ayuso who showed better kick in a sprint of two against Jai Hindley.
"I finish here as the first among humans," Ayuso praises Vingegaard in a flash interview. "Happy for him. He's really on another level right now. I felt a little better than yesterday. When Jonas attacked, I tried to follow his wheel. But as everyone could see, I had to stop. I ran out of air and exploded."
"Still, I'm glad I tried it," he continues. "I tried to attack and make it difficult for the others. Winning turned out to be impossible, but it went well. I think I'm on the right track."
With his winning sprint for second place, Ayuso secured the leading position in the points classification, although he was not really aware of it at the time. "Honestly not, no," he laughs. "Second place - first among the people - was the most important, especially in a duel against someone like Hindley. He is also one of the very best riders in the world. But the points jersey is a nice bonus, although Jonathan Milan will probably take it away from me again," he finally refers to the flat final stage.
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- "The Giro d'Italia 2024 saw a strong increase in audience figures across RAI networks, especially on Rai2 and RaiSport HD. The race also experienced a significant boost in online engagement, with record numbers of website visitors, video views, and media articles. The event reached over 700 million viewers worldwide...." Sorry, but Pogacar is boring only for ... envious? ex-riders.
maria2024202406-05-2025 - It's always the way in pro cycling - 1 rider wins and the rest,instead of working with each other to topple the better rider, they ride behind said rider collecting scraps that're left...
leedorney06-05-2025 - Better for the Giro? I'm sure viewers would rather see Tadej dominate the Giro from day 1, than see Van Hooydonck (if he were still racing for Visma) battle it out with whoever, maybe Uidtjebroeks (if he was in the Visma lineup).. pun not intended ,for the maglia rosa in the 21-day race.. A grand tour is not like a horse race. People want to see Tadej, Jonas, Remco, Primoz, MVDP, Van Aert etc... If not, I'll just watch the Tour of California.FredMan06-05-2025
- Respect to Caleb Ewan for making the decision to bow out of professional cycling. He's the only one that's knows what's best for him at this point in his life, and I wish him all the best in his future endeavors.
santiagobenites06-05-2025 - Yeah, a big one 😁
DareDevil06-05-2025 - That's a surpriseleedorney06-05-2025
- You were doing so well up until the last paragraph :-). So Almeida did not win a single stage race with UAE and now because of contract uplift he can win prestigious races? Come on. The man was being shaped to get to this level and took 2 years. After leaving QS he had lost his punch, he is not a sprinter of course but he had a good kick, he also lost a bit his TT performance, was a disaster going downhill. All this time he was improving his climbing and now he is recovering all the aforementioned qualities he had before. He is not putting on a show because of contract negotiations, he simply evolved also due to changing trainer. I think he will do a hat-trick in Tour de Suisse and then go with no pressure to the Tour. Depending on how well Jonas or Remco recover and how tired Roglic is from the Giro, a podium might fall on his lap. Then Vuelta maybe UAE can compensate his performance by making him the solo leader if Pogacar is doubting. However, where I am really interested to see Almeida is the World Championships. I am hoping the race is split early and then we see Almeida picking up corpses along the Rwanda streets up until he reaches an empty Pogacar and then tips him over the line. Then I wake up and life continues.Indioshak06-05-2025
- Jonas had also had a speed wobble on that same descent. They have both improved their descending skills since then, and in 2024 took scary risks on downhills.Hill3306-05-2025
- Should be a good one! It's been since 2022 since we have seen peak Pogi vs peak Vingo. 2023 Pogi had injuries and a suboptimal preparation. 2024 Vingo had even worse injuries and a poor runup to the Tour. UAE team has gotten stronger since 2022, while Visma maybe less strong.mobk06-05-2025
- You'd have to be an amoral prick to work for this team.Matt06-05-2025
Had roles been reversed, class act Jonas would never have made such a comment.
I like to believe he didn't mean it that way. Wout said something similar at the TdF last year and I doubt he'd ever accuse Jonas of doping. Pogacar and Vingegaard are always praised for being a step above the rest, so I think he meant it in that sense. I hope so anyway!
Doping is always something to keep in the back of the mind but I’d say these days there is a pretty level playing field due to a jump in the use of data and knowledge, no-one is playing the field like Lance did.
Cycling has however changed radically, you just have to look at the average age of the elite now, and all those coming in to challenge them. The older generation suddenly vanished or slowed down with only Roglic left, maybe the modern requirements for the sport are too much them to put in the effort? It’s all gotten more lively now that there is more testosterone at play, I don’t think they’ve gotten much faster though, just seems like it because there’s a bigger gap between the first 5-6, a dozen young challengers and all the rest who are more « domesticated » than ever.
Or first among 'clean riders' ?