"I just threw away a victory..." - Juan Ayuso regrets decision to attack at the base of Grand Colombier

Juan Ayuso started off his 2026 season with a set of strong performances at the Volta ao Algarve which earned him the overall win. An injury at Paris-Nice derailed his spring, but as the peloton reaches the summer and the Tour de France period, the Spaniard has returned to his best level. He could've won today's brutal summit finish at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, but believes he miscalculated his attack, and ruined his chances at a major comeback win.

The stage featured several climbs, and also technical descents. One of them early on was neutralized due to gravel on the road, something that the Spaniard agreed with. “It was a really hard day and I think the organizer did a good job in neutralizing because it was quite dangerous where they neutralized it,” Ayuso said in a post-race interview with CyclingPro.net. “So we have to praise them for thinking about us because for sure there would have been crashes if not".

Shortly after, Paul Seixas crashed. Lidl-Trek did not work immediately after, however did take part in the work later in the day, mostly through Quinn Simmons who had been in the day's breakaway and was pulled back. But this was in order to control the front group, the leader of the German team argued.

"After that, it was just full-on racing, UAE and us, we just controlled because we didn't want the break to get some time.” That work certainly did not please some in the peloton, with Decathlon's Léo Bisiaux not hiding his dissatisfaction against the work that was done whilst Paul Seixas was making a return to contention.

Ayuso and Mattias Skjelmose remained focused on the final climb, where the differences would be made. Averaging over 10% for 8 kilometers, it was always going to be a climb where pacing would be key and also the riders' legs would be more important than their tactics.

Lidl entered the climb in front, and Ayuso quickly attacked. Confidence was through the roof, and the Spaniard maintained the momentum, whilst the likes of Paul Seixas struggled and Isaac del Toro did not respond.

It was promising, but didn't earn him a win. “I’m just disappointed because I think that was obviously too far out, too early and I threw away the win. My teammates deserved it today so I’m just disappointed.”

In good spirits however, he responded “because I’m stupid" when asked why he attacked so early on. It was nevertheless a very strong display of power, his best long climbing performance in a race of such level in a long time. Ayuso finished the stage in second place, 24 seconds off of Isaac del Toro who caught him inside the final 2 kilometers; and has climbed into fourth in the overall classification.

A podium place remains quite likely. He is 24 seconds behind Matteo Jorgenson and 17 behind Del Toro; whilst leading Tobias Johannessen by 27 and Paul Seixas by 48. Of course, Luke Tuckwell remains in the race lead, and could still hold a place in the final podium. A lot will come down to the final stage which ends at the mythical Plateau de Solaison.

Ayuso believes that with better pacing, he may have won today's stage, arguing that he blew up in the finale due to an effort that was too high too early. "... The pace was not super hard and then it was the hardest part, so I thought ‘okay, on the wheel I’m not going to save much,’ but at the end you do, and I think I just threw away a victory today.”