OPINION | Juan Ayuso is only at the UAE because he's a Matxin protégé. But for how long?

Cycling has always been an unpredictable sport and exactly such was the 2025 edition of Giro d'Italia. However, our colleague Carlos Silva's words today are directed at a cyclist who, in his opinion, had his share of the blame for the final outcome of the race: Juan Ayuso.

Juan Ayuso is a case study. He went into the race as a co-leader along with Adam Yates. However after the Siena stage he found himself overtaken by Isaac del Toro who slipped into the pink jersey - almost by a mistake. UAE Team Emirates - XRG seemed to have never fully trusted the Mexican rider and that came at a high price in the end.

In the Siena stage, after many crashes plagued the peloton, Isaac del Toro could have locked up the GC of Giro d'Italia, had he been given freedom. That didn't happen, because Ayuso was in a group behind him and so the Mexican had to sit patiently and pass up on a luxurious opportunity to gain a lot of time.

Ayuso is one of those cyclists, who as Carlos says, "either do things the way I want or I don't do anything". He also points out that Ayuso has been acting that way for years.

Remember the 2022 Volta a Catalunya? On the 3rd stage of the race, Juan Ayuso was 2nd overall, 10 seconds behind Ben O'Connor. João Almeida was behind him in the overall. The Portuguese rider won the 4th stage and moved into the lead of the race with the same time as Nairo Quintana. On the following stage João Almeida gained 1 second in an intermediate sprint and at the end of the day he was the lone leader of Catalunya.

With Almeida in yellow, what does Ayuso do in the 5th stage? He attacks. He attacked and took with him two men who were the Portuguese's rivals in the general classification: Richard Carapaz, then with INEOS, and Sergio Higuita, who was wearing the colors of BORA. Ayuso attacked... and later on dropped out from the breakaway and finished the stage alongside João Almeida.

The result at the end of the day? Higuita took the lead of the race, Carapaz moved up to 2nd and João Almeida to 3rd place, 52 seconds off the lead.

This is one of many moments where we can point the finger at Ayuso and feel no sympathy or guilt. In this Giro d'Italia Ayuso failed on a high mountain day after the rest day. He lost his chances of winning the race. Everyone talked about his knee, but what Carlos saw was just a bad day on the bike for the Spaniard. On the next stage, he lost around 30 minutes and the team said he'd been stung by a bee.

What remains to be explained is why Ayuso didn't use the medical support car after the bee "sting", because it doesn't appear in the report. Even more important is the fact that when Ayuso crossed the finish line, he showed no visible signs of having a swollen face, as he was supposed to after being stung.

Convenient? Yes. It was the UAE's way of getting the Spanish cyclist to leave the race without having to give explanations and, in essence, creating empathy around him because he was in pain. No, he wasn't in pain. I've seen cyclists in much worse shape than Ayuso who get on their bikes and give everything for their teammates. That's team spirit, humility, sacrifice. It's giving everything for the team.

Ayuso simply refuses to take on a secondary role. He wants to be the main protagonist. He wants to have a team working for him and not working for the team. Adam Yates, in last year's Tour de France, had to go into work early, on a day when João Almeida spent a lot of time with his face in the wind and called him to help with the work for Pogacar, because Ayuso was at the back of the group, looking like he was suffering.

But once the difficulties of the day had passed, his suffering quickly ended and he crossed the finish line ahead of those he worked with. Yates was tough on his teammate. Two days later, the Spaniard abandoned the Tour.

Ayuso is one of those cyclists who, if Carlos were sporting director, he would never want on his team. At UAE he is protected by his countryman Matxin. But until when?