"I asked him for one less point and then he left" - Juan Ayuso struggles on Angliru and later sees João Almeida not wait for him

Juan Ayuso could not be with the best in the Angliru. The young talent of UAE Team Emirates was overcome by the ramps of the Asturian colossus and lost almost all his podium chances at the Vuelta a Espana.

After the stage, he spoke with RTVE colleagues, who asked him if it had been his hardest day on a bike: "There have been many days in which I have had to suffer and go to the limit and it has been one more. I knew I had to regulate, I came to recognize it and I knew that if you explode you do not advance, if you have a bad day you can pass it, but if you explode you can fall a long time," he said. "I didn't have a good feeling and I had to regulate myself as best I could and make a very diesel effort not to blind myself on any ramp because there was no rest to catch my breath".

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There was a moment when Joao Almeida tried to help him, but the Portuguese rider, after a few meters pulling him, finally left after chasing him from behind: "I didn't have the strength to say anything to him, I asked him for one less point and then he left". The time losses at the end of the day were meaningful, losing 1:42 minutes to Jonas Vingegaard and 1:23 on Mikel Landa who is now on hot pursuit for his fourth place.

He spoke of suffering, of the podium and of trying for a stage victory that he believes is now almost impossible: "On the one hand proud to have been able to suffer, to have been able to manage a bad moment, but on the other hand disappointed because today I went out with a lot of desire, I thought it was a real option to win the stage."

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"I have not been at my level. Anything can happen until Madrid, we must not lose faith, but we have to be realistic and if they don't have a bad day it will be difficult. I would also like to win a stage victory, but I think that both today and Saturday the breakaway will win," he concluded.

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