"The first three, four minutes put me under pressure" - Juan Ayuso on his shape at Tour Auvergne Rhône-Alpes ahead of mountain battle

Juan Ayuso believes he's getting closer and closer to top form as he grows into the 2026 Tour Auvergne Rhône-Alpes. The Lidl-Trek co-leader goes into the weekend mountains feast in a strong position after some encouraging performances.

The Spanish rider enjoyed a successful start to life at his new team with early season success, but setbacks in spring included abandoning Paris–Nice after a crash before he had to pull out of Itzulia Basque Country due to illness.

Recovering from illness saw him pull the brakes and re-think his short term goals, but after several weeks at altitude with one eye on the Tour de France, Ayuso arrived at the Tour Auvergne Rhône-Alpes with a mix of caution and optimism - content with the possibility his level wasn't quite yet where it needed to be.

However, after steady performances in the team time trial, Friday's first mountain stage and he and Mattias Skjelmose sitting in 8th and 9th respectively, Ayuso is gaining in confidence.

"It's two pretty hard days to come and it's still all to play for," Ayuso told reporters before the stage. "I'm hoping for a little bit more. As I said at the beginning of the week, I hope I'll keep on improving throughout the race and I hope today I can make a step forward. But to be honest, yesterday I was quite happy.

"Yeah, preparation for the Tour and for this race was not the easiest, so to not have a super good day and still be more or less there, then I think I have to stay with the positives. And, again, I hope today I can keep on improving and if that's the case, then I hope I can go for the win."

Ayuso did suffer with some initial accelerations as the group of favourites raced up the final climb on stage 6, noting that the first minutes of Paul Seixas' attack put him on the back foot.

He and Skjelmose finished 22 seconds adrift of Seixas and Isaac Del Toro and the former UAE Team Emirates -XRG star hopes that he can find a stronger level on the longer climbs.

"I mean, yesterday I think what I was missing was a bit the acceleration they did at the bottom, because then and then more or less we maintained the same speed, the same difference all throughout the climb, but I just missed the first, yeah, the first three, four minutes put me under pressure.

"And I hope today and tomorrow, you know, with longer climbs will be a bit different. And I just hope I just keep on improving overall and, yeah, I can be closer and closer to my best level."