Juan Ayuso unsurprised by fall-out at Tour de Romandie: "I didn't even come to this race thinking I was going to push myself"

Juan Ayuso has performed quite well in the time-trials. He took up the lead of the Tour de Romandie yesterday after a brilliant win against the clock, but had admitted he wasn't in his best form. As he stepped down from the first spots in the overall classification, it wasn't a big surprise following months of absence due to injury.

“I had no legs, I exploded. I tried my best. After that, when I knew I wouldn't be on the podium, I took it easy because I was on the limit," Ayuso said in a post-race interview. “People didn't believe me because I won. But I knew I'm not in shape yet. Coming from a very stubborn injury, I knew I wouldn't be among the best here. Yesterday was a surprise to me, today was not. I didn't even come to this race thinking I was going to push myself. I came here to help the team, finish the race and see how it would go.”

The Spaniard suffered from a lengthy injury that saw him only begin his racing stint this week. Although the signs looked very promising at first, his fitness was still far from it's best. He's put on a brave display at Thyon 2000, but he was unable to match the best when the pace went up in the second half of the ascent. Ayuso rode to 27th on the day 3:28 minutes down, and has dropped to 17th in the overall classification - where he is expected to finish the race.

“How things went yesterday was already something I take with me. What happened today is normal, if you look at how I got here," Ayuso continued. "Now I'm going to take some rest, because I really had to go deep and I'm very tired now. I have a rest period and will return to competition in the Tour de Suisse. If I feel good, I might do some races sooner, but I think [Tour de] Switzerland will be the next race," he concluded. As in 2022, the Vuelta a Espana should ultimately be his biggest goal of the year, as he looks to improve his third place.