"It's been a long time coming" - Juan Ayuso looks ahead to the first mountain test of Giro

The first big test of the Giro d'Italia 2025 for Juan Ayuso comes now. The Spaniard will face the race's first mountaintop finish this Friday, on stage 7. The UAE Team Emirates - XRG star is 18 seconds behind Primoz Roglic, and wants to go all out for the Slovenian.

Ayuso made this clear in his latest statements to Marca: "Every day I have more racing rhythm," Juan Ayuso begins by noting about the crash he suffered in the opening stage. "The rest day helped me a little bit to settle down. I think I'm improving with each stage. And tomorrow will be the first big test of this Giro, which to be honest has been a bit of a wait."

All eyes will be on the final climb to Tagliacozzo, almost 12 kilometers at 6% with final 2 kilometers at 9%, where Ayuso and UAE will have the advantage that Roglic's key domestique Jai Hindley had to abandon as a main victim of a mass crash during stage 6.

Although stage 7 will be the first test of the overall, and the only pure mountain stage in this week's Giro d'Italia, Juan Ayuso also wanted to put emphasis on Sunday's stage 9. There he believes it could be a trap for the men in the general classification:

"The Siena stage can mark a lot of the Giro d'Italia. You can have a bit of bad luck and lose a lot of time already. The ideal would be to arrive at the rest day in front," concluded the Spanish UAE rider.

After finishing stage 6 of the Giro d'Italia, as no rider's times were taken, Ayuso is still in 6th position in the general classification, but as the 2nd of the favorites, only behind Primoz Roglic, who is 2nd with the aforementioned 18 seconds advantage over the Barcelona rider. Ahead, Mads Pedersen remains as Maglia Rosa, and watch out that in Paris-Nice he showed he can defend well in the mountains.