Juan Ayuso comes of age with biggest career win at Itzulia Basque Country: "It was incredible but very hard, as we all knew it was going to be"

Juan Ayuso has managed to win the final general classification of a World Tour stage race, for the very first time in his career and he has done it in one of the most important one-week races of his nation, the Itzulia Basque Country.

While it is true that the absence of Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel has favoured the the likes of Ayuso, the UAE Team Emirates star rider has been impeccable, especially on the last day, where he left the victory to Carlos Rodriguez and took the overall. It should be remembered that he suffered a crash in the third stage, although fortunately it seems not to have affected his performance.

After the final stage, the 21-year-old Catalan commented the following in the media interview: "It was an incredible stage, very hard as we all knew it was going to be, super explosive. I think the team rode perfect, we put riders in the breakaway, which was very important for us. Then we started in Krabelin because we knew it was important to make the Lidl-Trek and Mattias Skjelmose suffer. That's how Marc did it, he rode a perfect race."

"And then in Izua I had the legs, I started, I connected with my teammate in front, and then although they caught us on the descent I was quite calm because I did the whole descent on the wheel, recovering while he had to go flat out. I knew that with the legs I had, although San Miguel is not too hard, with the fatigue and a little accumulated everything, I knew that by attacking once I could make the difference," Ayuso continues. "It's also super cool to be able to ride with Carlos, we've been racing together on these roads even when we were juniors, it's been very nice".

He was also asked if it was the hardest stage of the whole year, something that people commented on before the race: "I don't know if it was the hardest stage of the whole year, but it sure is near the top. I did the reconnaissance with my coach two days before the start. We knew it was going to be decisive and it has been".

Finally, Ayuso spoke of his rivalry and his relationship with Carlos Rodriguez, his teammate in today's finish: "The rivalry is inevitable because we have been racing since we were 15 years old, so there has always been a rivalry, but it is a healthy rivalry, a rivalry that we both like. When days like today come together, when it is convenient for both of us to row together, it is great to have a person who has raced with him with the Spanish national team in youth, in U-23, to achieve things together because it was convenient for both of us. I think there is no other person outside the team who I would've chosen."