Juan Ayuso dominates Tirreno-Adriatico's queen stage and sets himself up for GC win
Cycling
Juan Ayuso is a rider that entered 2025 with a lot to prove, and thus far he's been doing a hell of a job. He has won the queen stage of Tirreno-Adriatico today, confirming his status as the man to beat, and has jumped into the race lead with one stage to go. Tom Pidcock and Jai Hindley finished second and third.
With Mathieu ban der Poel attacking right from kilometer 0, it promised to be an exciting start to the stage. The pace was very fast and it took some time for it to form, but eight riders eventually went up the road: Gianni Vermeersch, Benjamin Thomas, Samuele Battistella, Jasper Stuyven, Chris Hamilton, Magnus Cort Nielsen, Andrea Vendrame and Andrea Pietrobon.
The gap never grew much beyond 3 minutes, as several teams had interest in today's stage - mostly with it being the sole mountain day of the seven-day race. The gap began to seriously decrease once the riders entered the final climb where first Bahrain - Victorious and then UAE Team Emirates - XRG began to pile on the pressure on Filippo Ganna.
Vendrame, a stage winner already on this race, went solo in front with 5 kilometers to go, and in the same very steep ramps Ganna was dropped from the peloton as Isaac del Toro set an excruciating pace in the peloton.
Shorttly after the Decathlon rider was caught and Juan Ayuso launched an attack, followed by Tom Pidcock and Jai Hindley. Mikel Landa bridged across, and over the next 1.5 kilometers the Spaniard attacked over and over again until he dropped his rivals with 3 kilometers to go.
It was a coming of age performance from Ayuso, who has a ton of weight and criticism on his shoulders, and despite being marked, rode everyone off the wheel to take a dominant win. Pidcock sprinted to second ahead of Hindley.
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Good win for Ayuso. He has appeared a bit inconsistent on mountain stages in the past; absolutely brilliant on some but then cracking on others.
Yep If he could just get some consistency going with his form, he would be a rider to be reckoned with in any gc race. As it is he blows hot and cold.
Dominant win??? 13 seconds over Piddie is not dominant.
Congratulations to Ayuso, this is a great win. The person who interests me more is Pidcock, who is racking up a fabulous set of podiums this season. The wins are good, but these second and third places are really interesting. Strade Bianchi and today's queen stage and a sprint against van der Poel? Pidcock is looking like the guy he was imagined to be. I did not expect this to happen when he changed to a smaller team, and it's fun to be proven wrong.
Yes, he’s impressive at the moment but lets see how long he keeps it up first so we know this isn’t his peak whilst those he’s expected to go up against are still building up to theirs.
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- Is this a joke?Jkolner12316-03-2025
- He has declined leadership though in the past? Lack of confidence? Hedging your bets works sometimes, at other times it is better to commit and go in big.Cyclingsbestfan16-03-2025
- Pidcock is starting sound like a more mature rider. It may be the media reports when he was at ineos skewing things, but he starting to sound like a defferent person.Cyclingsbestfan16-03-2025
- Yep If he could just get some consistency going with his form, he would be a rider to be reckoned with in any gc race. As it is he blows hot and cold.Cyclingsbestfan16-03-2025
- I was watching the race live, and it seems like this crash could have been avoided. A pre-race course inspection and appropriate signage.yuckly16-03-2025
- Jonas won T-A last tear and wanted to do P-N this year. Jorgensen also wanted to do it, he declined every si gle opportunity to be a solo leader, eevry stage race Jonas doesn't do, Girovappaxbipmv16-03-2025
- I agree, he either needs a surprise attack in the final, win a sprint or just somehow overpower everyonevappaxbipmv16-03-2025
- Did old man Bruyneel make this point before Jonas crashed out?Renz16-03-2025
- Good win for Ayuso. He has appeared a bit inconsistent on mountain stages in the past; absolutely brilliant on some but then cracking on others.Cooldude16-03-2025
- A little caution is understandable. Just ask Roglic.Cooldude16-03-2025