Juan Ayuso will not race the 2024 Vuelta a Espana. Since Joao Almeida raised his hand in the middle of the climb of the Tour de France everything seems to go wrong for the Valencian in a UAE Team Emirates in which the only figure who has publicly supported him since then has been Joxean Matxin.
After Almeida's gesture it was Adam Yates who criticized him and later Mario Cipollini leaked a private conversation with Mauro Gianetti, the CEO of the team, in which the latter assured that after the cyclist's withdrawal from the Tour de France he was now out of the Vuelta for sure.
All this time Matxín has been appearing in different Spanish media putting out fires and making it clear that the 21-year-old remains remains a key rider for the Emirati squad. Now that his absence from the Vuelta a Espana has been confirmed, Matxin has assured AS that it is a decision to take care of him for the future: "Juan is a Heritage for us and we didn't want to force by not being at 100%. We also want to preserve him for the future".
On his poor performance in the Olympic Games road race (he finished 22nd), his first performance after his COVID withdrawal from the Tour de France, he noted the following: "After a lot of work and preparation, Juan couldn't finish the Tour and show his level, and that in the end is unpleasant for any rider. He went to Paris with the national team because of the commitment he has, but seeing his performance it is clear that he was not fully recovered."
We will see what happens in the Canadian classics, which will be the next objective of a cyclist who, after making the podium in the Vuelta in 2022, has had two very complicated seasons: in 2023 because of injury and in 2024 because of everything that happened in the Tour, including abandonment and the team's refusal to allow him to participate in the Vuelta;
🇪🇸 Juan Ayuso #LaVuelta24 🗣️ "After the Tour I've put my mind on La Vuelta straight away. But in the weeks after the Tour I never reached my level. When we saw training didn't go well, we switched to the original plan: Olympics and the Canadian races in September." (AS)
