💥 MATHIEU VAN DER POEL 🌈🇳🇱 consigue la VICTORIA en el @MadridCriterium 🥈 Juan Ayuso 🇪🇦 se anota el segundo puesto y 🥉 Carlos Verona es tercero en la clasificación final!! 🙌🏼 EVENTAZO EL MADRID CRITÉRIUM 2023!! 🎥 @Garzon__Jesus
Juan Ayuso: "Fighting the uncertainty of thinking that I might not get back on the bike was extremely difficult"
CyclingSaturday, 04 November 2023 at 11:00
Juan Ayuso has not had an easy 2023. After his breakthrough in the Vuelta a España 2022, it took him months to make his debut in the season that has just concluded. He gives his impressions of it in an interview from the folks at Relevo.
The UAE Team Emirates rider admits to continuing to experience pain from time to time, although he seems to have the injury under control after a difficult start to the season in which he even had thoughts of retirement.
PLAIN
"Obviously, it is still worrying because it is something that is the nerve, that you do not know when it is going to come, when it is not going to come and if it comes, if it is going to stay or if it is going to leave at the moment.... So, something that keeps bothering a little bit behind the ear. But, for now and after I went back to competing, I haven't had any moment where the pain was so that I had to stop again. I hope I can keep it up."
NEGATIVE THOUGHTS
"The problem with my injury was the mental aspect more than the injury itself. Because, let's see, the pain allowed me to continue living a normal life, apart from being able to ride a bike, which is not as serious as other misfortunes that have happened in cycling. But the problem was the uncertainty of saying that "maybe I can't get back on the bike because of this nonsense". A little foolishness, let's call it that. So, fighting that uncertainty was extremely difficult."
RETURN TO COMPETITION
"It was what I asked for, but also what I had already discussed with the team when I made the podium in La Vuelta in 2022. We already agreed that in 2023 I would ride La Vuelta again to try to improve, but that already in 2024 I was going to try in the Tour. Although I've had the injury, everything has gone a little bit on track and it's a little bit what we had closed for a long time."
2024
Eventually he recovered in time to race the Vuelta a Espana at the highest level, after succeeding at the Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse. He rode to fourth in Spain, the best of the rest outside of the Jumbo-Visma riders.
"I think I was at least able to turn the situation around. To finish the year similar to last year, which is the important thing and what I'm left with after everything that happened," he concludes. "Let's hope that next season I can have a year without any inconvenience, without any problems and that my results are what I can achieve. I only ask that my results are not altered by these misfortunes".
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Article written by Juan Larra.
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- It's everywhere. Just like it was before. But we can just pretend it isn't. Just like we did before.Sweep19-11-2024
- Not a top 4 GT rider? He's got more GT wins (just not at the Tour) than any viable active rider (Froome not included). Were it not for his team messing it up for him, he'd have won the Vuelta even more often. He's a bizarrely accident prone, deeply conservative rider, but it delivers. He's also one of the best 1-week GC riders in the peloton. The man may not be Pogacar or Vingegaard (who is?), but he is definitely in the top 3 of the field, right now.RidesHills19-11-2024
- Nobody is saying that he is tin he Top 4 GT riders but nobdy is also saying he is capable of winning the TDF in the presence of Pog and Jonas. He was already fairly blown away before his crash and if we assume that Bora hired him to win the TDF, then it would not be considered a success. That he won the Vuelta only make it not a total fail.abstractengineer19-11-2024
- "The viewing and visitor figures are both better than when they were riding" - what a BS. Please compare (and only then) visitor figures during current season vs when WvA and MvdP are back in December (hopefully!) otherwise you are comparing oranges to apples.averagecyclist19-11-2024
- I counted 16 riders under 24 out of 43 that started. Once was only 16 ! Two of the top riders are Zoe and Schreiber and both under 23 yet that have done 50 min races in the past with the elites so I think it's just bad clock management. Let them race 50 freakin' minutes! One more lap could have made a big dffierence most times in the podium and winner.frieders319-11-2024
- He needs to finish out his contract and then go hit MTB and Cross/Gravel really hard, that's where his heart is.awp18-11-2024
- Pidcock is starting to sound like Froome now.Sweep18-11-2024
- I think this was because there were junior women in the race. If a race has junior women am pretty sure it has to be less than 45 minutes. I believe a rule is coming in for next season that will fine organisers that don't put on a junior women's race a fine equivalent to the prize money. So fingers crossed we should see more longer elite and junior women's races from next season.NorrisHippocampe18-11-2024
- Of course he CAN. Big salary in cycling is not when you win but when they talk about you (and your team / sponsors). For every news about Jonas, MVdP or Wout there are 10 times more(!) news about Pidcock (like everyday for last 2 months?). Since cycling is advertising sport not competitive sport (in terms of from money comes from) Pidcock is winner and GOAT - change my mind. ;-)averagecyclist18-11-2024