OPINION | Juan Ayuso must leave UAE if he wants to make the most of his career potential
CyclingTuesday, 13 August 2024 at 10:00
We don't know what is really going on inside UAE Team Emirates with Juan Ayuso, but from the outside it seems clear: Juan Ayuso must leave the UAE team if he wants to fight for a Grand Tour win in the short term.
We analyze this together with CiclismoAlDia. Tadej Pogacar's team will have the Slovenian leading one or two Grand Tours every year and in the leadership scale right now Joao Almeida and Adam Yates are above the Valencian. As if that wasn't enough, behind him Isaac del Toro is pushing hard and we'll see what he can do in the next Vuelta a España.
Until this year everything was going perfectly for Juan in Matxín's team: 2 seasons as a professional and twice unchallenged leader of the Emirati squad in the Vuelta a España. He has responded to perfection: third in his first participation in 2022 and fourth in 2023 after the three Jumbo-Visma in a very complicated year in which he was stopped for a long time due to physical problems.
Thus, with Pogacar as the only leader in the Giro, the team decided to go all out in the Tour to try to dethrone Vingegaard and joined Ayuso, Yates and Almeida as the Slovenian's 3 deputy leaders, with the first 2 being key in Pogi's victory and with Ayuso distant from the collective plan. Mauro Gianetti, team DS, said there would be no change of plans with respect to participating in the Vuelta a España despite his health problems that took him out of the Tour.
The team's position is understandable: they've promised Yates and Almeida to be the ringleaders in the Vuelta and they're not going to put Ayuso in. That would have made them quite angry.
So, we have Juan with a strange season to date in which he racked up wins and podiums in the classics early on, was second to Vingegaard in Tirreno-Adriaticoand won Itzulia Basque Country. He was way up in the Tour when he abandoned on stage 13.
Juan Ayuso during the Tour de France. He was dropped by UAE days before testing positive for Covid-19 and withdrawing from the race. @Sirotti
Time to leave UAE Team Emirates
The argument for why he should leave the team is the following:
Yes, he's tired after the Tour. Yes, he won't be at 100% for the Vuelta. Yes, there are theoretically better riders in his team to take on the Vuelta. However, we believe UAE is the only WorldTour team that would have made this decision. We believe that anyone else, including a Visma team that will go with Sepp Kuss as leader, would have taken a leader of Juan Ayuso's quality to the Vuelta even if he wasn't 100%.
So, what can Juan expect next year: co-leadership in the Giro, another Grand Tour as Pogi's domestique at the Tour? Supposedly, the Slovenian could ride the Vuelta next year to complete his triplet?
What happens if Almeida or Yates wins the Spanish race? Simple, less priority for the Valencian. He should force his way out. In any other team he would be one hundred percent sure to lead alone (at least) one grand tour a year.
Matxín today made it very clear in AS that they are counting on him. He (also in AS) wanted to make it clear that he is in a good mood with the team and that he was not in optimal physical condition to face the Vuelta. Everything indicates that he will continue...
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- In contract year, i would say that if team duties permit, you are allowed to market yourself.abstractengineer06-06-2025
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- OMG you've never been in a sprint if you get touched a little and stop sprinting ! Stay back on the peleton then if you can't take a lil' touch !frieders306-06-2025
- I guess that I'll need to find another sport to follow then.
santiagobenites05-06-2025 - Agreed, this sprint s is not woethy of a religation penalty! This should be re examied ou tof fairness.sam05-06-2025
- no brilliance from Yates or Visma?? you don't win Grand Tour without being strong rider. He stayed podium thru mtns without teammates Toro had full team of super climbers.Brilliant WVA and Yates, both monumental, inspiration comebacks, crushing the ride (all-time record time and he's not strong?). We all know Toro and Carapaz failed, but they didn't trust their legs; you might win by a few seconds if the others look at each other but not 5min.ccpivo05-06-2025
- If this story ftom Del Toro's father is accurate. It is quite shameful to hear and very sad to read. The U.C.I. need to sort these shoddy goings on in Mexican cycling now!Cyclingsbestfan05-06-2025
- He was evidently not considered a threat by Carapaz and del Toro, either, until it was too late.velodan05-06-2025
This is absolutely terrible advice. The guy is young, give him time to develop and learn.
He’s also how old? Perhaps we should forgive youth for its unpredictability. And maybe, as he returns from exhaustion, he will wish to grow within the most successful team in men’s racing.
What viable team wants him?
Well UAE for one based on the massive long term contract they gave him. Beyond that any world tour team with the budget would love to sign a rider of Ayuso’s calibre. Movistar would be a particularly good fit.
No way do Visma, Soudal or Ineos want Ayuso on their teams poisoning the team cohesion.
Maybe a team from Colombia will sponsor him?
Movistar and Ineos
Maybe but I doubt he will take well to the chaos that is Movistar and don't see him as any better than Carlos Rodriguez. I thought Lidl with their and his American conections. One thing is certain he needs to go elsewhere but his character looks a bit dodgy so not too many takers.
Lidl has Skjelmose, Geoghegan Hart and Giulio Ciccone with their own ambitions. Put Ayuso into the mix to go boom and blow the Lid off
Yes boom indeed. Then again I can see that happening with any team Ayuso goes to.
to much fuzz...