"Skjelmose was better than him" - Juan Ayuso criticised by Lidl-Trek teammate after disappointing 2026 season

Mathias Vacek has admitted he expected considerably more from Juan Ayuso during his first season at Lidl-Trek, revealing that he noticed something was wrong with his teammate during preparations for the Tour de France. The Czech rider has also suggested Ayuso arrived at the race already exhausted and delivered a blunt comparison with Mattias Skjelmose, who ultimately finished ahead of the Spaniard in the general classification.

Ayuso's move from UAE Team Emirates - XRG was among the biggest transfers ahead of 2026, offering the former Vuelta a Espana podium finisher a fresh opportunity to pursue his Grand Tour ambitions.

An early victory at the Volta ao Algarve suggested the partnership was off to a promising start, but his form became increasingly difficult to predict as the season progressed.

"To be honest, I expected more from him," Vacek told Spanish newspaper MARCA. "He started well by winning the Algarve and things looked promising, but as the season went on, I had the feeling that something was missing. He was good, but not at the top level we'd become used to seeing from him."

Ayuso's preparations were disrupted by a crash at Paris-Nice and illness at Itzulia Basque Country, setbacks that interrupted his momentum after the Algarve. He eventually returned to competition in June at the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, where third place overall appeared to offer encouragement ahead of his biggest objective of the year.

Behind that result, however, Vacek had already noticed problems during the team's altitude training camp in Sierra Nevada. "At the Sierra Nevada training camp, he had problems with allergies. He went back home to Andorra and resumed training, but you could tell something wasn't right," the 22-year-old recalled. "I don't know whether it was mental or something else. I don't want to make claims about something I don't know, but that was my impression."

Ayuso had described his three-week training block in Sierra Nevada positively before returning to racing, and Lidl-Trek's performance staff were similarly encouraged by his progress. His training numbers suggested he was approaching the level required to compete for a Tour podium, an ambition he had openly discussed before the race.

The subsequent difficulties were all the more frustrating given his previous Grand Tour record. Ayuso had finished third at the 2022 Vuelta a Espana while still a teenager and fourth the following year, before adding overall victories at Itzulia Basque Country in 2024 and Tirreno-Adriatico in 2025. He had arrived at Lidl-Trek with considerably more experience of competing at the highest level than most riders his age.

Ayuso's podium ambitions gradually slipped away during the Tour, with the Spaniard unable to match the strongest general classification contenders when the race reached its decisive mountain stages.

By Paris, he had fallen to seventh overall, 17 minutes and 48 seconds behind Tadej Pogacar. More significantly from Lidl-Trek's perspective, Skjelmose finished sixth, beating his teammate by two minutes and 49 seconds.

"In the end, you could see at the Tour that he'd arrived exhausted, and Skjelmose was better than him," Vacek said. "When we signed him, I definitely expected him to perform as he had in previous years."

Ayuso had himself acknowledged that he was struggling long before the final classification was settled. Speaking after stage 20, he revealed that he had already experienced difficulties on the Tourmalet during the opening week. Although frustrated by his condition, he maintained that he had given everything throughout the race.

His seventh place was hardly a disastrous result in isolation, particularly after a disrupted spring, but it was some distance from the podium challenge Lidl-Trek had hoped to mount. It also left Skjelmose with the team's better general classification result, despite Ayuso having arrived as one of its headline signings.

The problems were still occupying Lidl-Trek months after the Tour. In October, Ayuso's coach Aritz Arberas acknowledged that the team had been unable to establish why the Spaniard's performances in competition were falling short of what his training data suggested he could achieve.

Arberas described encouraging numbers in preparation that had not translated into the expected results, prompting further examination of possible medical factors and his training programme. Ayuso was equally frustrated, repeatedly asking his coach for an explanation that the team could not yet provide.

Vacek remains convinced that his teammate is capable of competing against the best riders in the peloton, having seen enough of his ability to know what he can produce when his form and confidence are in place.

"When he's on a good run, he's capable of following Pogacar and the very best riders," he said. "But with riders like him, if there's a mental lapse or even the smallest detail isn't right, they can lose confidence and become unsettled."

There was little improvement in Ayuso's results during the closing months of the season, although he did finish sixth overall at the Tour of Guangxi. It left the Algarve as the outstanding result of his first year with Lidl-Trek, rather than the beginning of the sustained run of success many had anticipated.

The team has not lowered its ambitions for 2027. Arberas has indicated that Ayuso will continue targeting major stage races and Grand Tours, while the Spaniard's contract through 2030 gives both parties time to find the consistency that eluded him this year.

There will also be competition for those opportunities. Skjelmose has strengthened his standing within the team following the Tour, and the arrival of Felix Gall adds another established climbing specialist to the squad. Ayuso's talent has never been in serious doubt, but after his first season at Lidl-Trek, his place at the front of the team's Grand Tour plans can no longer be judged on potential alone.