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.
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".
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Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- lol yeahmij08-11-2026
- I know, their headlines can be so misleading. Pidcock had a great season with 5 wins. and some solid 2nds. no reason to take away from that with a fake headline.mij08-11-2026
- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
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🎙️ Juan Ayuso, en el micrófono de @qiglesias 🗣️ "A partir de ahora, haré lo que me pida el equipo" 🤔 "Estoy tranquilo porque sé de dónde viene, no me encontraba bien" cope.es/programas/tiem…
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