"It's not normal for someone to be that good" - Juan Ayuso lauds Tadej Pogacar as cycling's Lionel Messi
CyclingSaturday, 03 May 2025 at 09:45
Tadej Pogacar has earned himself the reputation as the leading the light of his generation, thanks to some epic performances over the last few years. Whether or not the Slovenian is the greatest of all-time is a question that will likely never see a unanimous response from fans, but according to UAE Team Emirates - XRG teammate Juan Ayuso, Pogacar is the cycling equivalent of football genius Lionel Messi.
In a pre-Giro d'Italia interview with Wieler Revue, Ayuso spoke in depth about his goals for the future and working alongside the current world champion at UAE. "I actually see myself more as a climber. Time trials are crucial for a general classification rider, because in the mountains it’s harder to gain back one or two minutes,” the Spaniard says of himself, as he looks to take the next step in 2025 with a potential Maglia Rosa win in Italy. “It’s definitely an advantage, but I also want to become a better climber to close the gap to guys like Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel, and Primoz Roglic."
Notably, Ayuso doesn't mention his teammate there, and that isn't a lapse in memory either. "No, I’m not mentioning Pogacar. If I say I want to be better than him, it turns into a media circus,” jokes the 22-year-old. “But of course, my dream is to become the best rider in the world. To be like him someday. Still, let’s be clear - I don’t see him as a rival. He’s the benchmark, the one every rider wants to reach."
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Ayuso and Pogacar haven't raced together all that often compared to some other UAE teammates. At the 2024 Tour de France, when the pair were together, things didn't exactly go to plan for Ayuso either. "Not being able to support him in last year’s Tour de France was tough," he admits. "But our relationship is totally fine. We’ve talked about it privately, and he understood.”
And ultimately, it seems as if there is a lot of respect from Ayuso towards his superstar teammate. “It’s true we’re one of the best teams in the world, and that means I’ve got a lot of strong teammates. If you want an opportunity, you have to prove yourself. If someone else is better, then you help them. That pushes everyone to perform at a higher level. Only Tadej is the undisputed team leader," he explains. "Everything is a little easier for him, haha."
"He’s simply the best rider in the world and he makes it all look so effortless. Friends outside of cycling sometimes ask me if it’s normal for someone to be that good. It’s not," concludes Ayuso. "What he does is like Lionel Messi dribbling past everyone as if they weren’t there. Messi makes it look easy - and in cycling, Tadej is our Messi.”
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- 19 and 20 will be tougher for Del Toro to recover if he gets dropped again.mobk29-05-2025
- "I’m still in the game" What game??? It is not even visible unless a commentator biased towards british riders mentions him. He is not in GC Top 10. He is not in stage top3 either. So he is neither here nor there. Even the helpers of UAE are better than him. he seriously needs to reconsider GC dreamsabstractengineer29-05-2025
- That is just talk for the sake of talking. The real problem is NOBODY yet knows Del Toto’s place in the hierarchy so everyone is just guessing if and when things might change, and usually in hindsight, predictions further than one day ahead being pretty pointless seeing as even for the next stage most get it wrong most of the time.Mistermaumau29-05-2025
- Del Toro cut off Carapaz a few times on that descent and dived the corners...not a great look!frieders329-05-2025
- That's certainly not true. Caruso (in 4th) is three minutes back and Storer (10th) is nearly eight. No one outside the top three has even a remote chance of winning (or, very likely, being anywhere near the final podium.)verve82529-05-2025
- Given the last week's inclinations - he's riding really well.. it's all to play for and they all know that to, any of the top 10 can win this
leedorney29-05-2025 - What does he have to learn?leedorney29-05-2025
- Almeida’s is up in 2027 when he’ll be 28. Let the bidding begin.Mistermaumau28-05-2025
- You were wondering how come MVDP is rated higher by whoever and the way JM refers to a website. Obviously they’re all somehow ranking which means attributing a score to performance. As I said, no idea how but one reason he may be ranked higher is if more than just wins are counted. Like at the Olympics, some rank by gold, some prefer considering all medals, usually in order for a preferred country/athlete to look better. At some moment, in order to rank more than wins, every ranking or algorithm has to attribute points or value to different positions in order to tally and compare.Mistermaumau28-05-2025
- If you’re really young, your body doesn’t even remember what you did to it the day before ;-)Mistermaumau28-05-2025
I agree. This was my comment . . .
Ayuso is the problem child for UAE and he reminds me of another Pidcock. He's a great rider but he's not the great rider he thinks he is. He also won't get the opportunities that he wants at UAE so why stay? Go shine somewhere else mate. UAE keeps him cos he can win a few races but he's not happy winning just those races. He wants the whole deal. He wants Pogis spot and it's no secret. He's already refused to work for Pogi in the past. Go shine somewhere else lad. We won't be mad at you but don't blow smoke and say "everything is fine at UAE and with Pogi" cos they know what you're about and you're greedy. Just another problem child and we are seeing more of them lately. Pidcock was a big one and Ayuso has been acting this way for 3 seasons. ON YA BIKE THEN LAD!!!