11/07/2024

Juan Ayuso looking forward to the Pyrenees: "We will try to win the Tour de France"

Juan Ayuso had a tough time on the 11th stage of the 2024 Tour de France. The Spaniard crossed the finish line in 15th position in a group with Matteo Jorgenson, Ben Healy, Egan Bernal, Steff Cras and Wilco Kelderman, 4:39 behind the day's winner, Jonas Vingegaard, and his UAE Team Emirates leader and current yellow jersey, Tadej Pogacar.

After the finale of the 12th stage, where the talented 21-year-old climber didn't have too much trouble, he took stock of the race so far. The first thing he talked about was the arrival of summer and therefore the high temperatures in the centre of France: "It's horrible. The Massif Central is what it is and we are preparing for it," Ayuso says.

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He also commented on his personal ambitions, although he recognizes that he is at the service of what UAE Team Emirates tells him, since his main task is to support Pogacar's quest to win the final general classification: "It would be a dream to win a stage, but it depends on what my team asks of me".

This weekend, the peloton will enter the Pyrenees with two of the best stages of the Tour 2024, which will presumably be fundamental in the fight between the top favorites for victory: "It will be similar to the Galibier and we will try to win the Tour de France," said Ayuso.

On Wednesday's stage, he played down the importance of Pogacar's "defeat" in the sprint against Vingegaard, stressing that it didn't change much in the overall. From a personal point of view, he did have a hard time: "Yesterday we didn't feel good, but that's what can happen. We are calm for the future. It looked like we had lost, but it was only a second".

However, he had no problem praising the great rival they have from UAE, and gave up on Jonas Vingegaard as a rider: "When you race against one of the best in the grand tours, and why not in history, that's what it is, but it makes it nice and interesting".

Finally, he was asked about Primoz Roglic's crash on this 12th day of competition, to which the Barcelona-born rider replied that he hadn't realized it at the time: "I just found out. It was in the fall of the middle bikes and we passed on the right".