The final result doesn’t lie: Juan Ayuso was beaten fairly at the Volta a Catalunya, Primož Roglič staging a final day siege to deny the Spaniard a second consecutive WorldTour stage race victory. But put aside Ayuso’s one bad day in the Catalan race, and one thing is obvious: the UAE Team Emirates-XRG man is growing into the superstar he’s always promised he would be.
After finishing third aged 19 at his debut Grand Tour, the 2022 Vuelta a España, Ayuso has been one of cycling’s most-hyped riders, and a smattering of victories – time trials, one-day successes and the occasional win in the mountains – has only reinforced his credentials. Yet in the shadow of Tadej Pogačar, and to a lesser extent João Almeida, Ayuso’s trajectory in the past two seasons hasn’t been as steep as what was once predicted. A DNF at the Tour de France last July, and an apparent but denied fallout with Pogačar added a cloud over his future, with XDS Astana cheekily trying to tempt him away from his contract that runs until 2028.
All that apparent discontent, however, seems a long way away now after a March that included two one-day victories, a stage and the GC at the Tirreno-Adriatico, and a stage and second overall at Catalunya. It’s a haul that can leave no one in any doubt that Ayuso has truly arrived on the biggest stage – and crucially he now appears ready to win a three-week race, perhaps even this May’s Giro d’Italia.
Talkative and engaging in his American-accented English – he spent five years of his childhood living in Atlanta, Georgia because of his father’s job – Ayuso is feeling liberated after a winter without any complications. “This is the first year since 2022 where I’ve had no issues,” he said at Catalunya. “I’ve had a lot of setbacks in 2023 and 2024: I’ve been sick with Covid or whatever. This is my first winter that I’ve managed to train without any issues, and every training I’ve planned I’ve done.” The upshot is his condition is superior to anything that’s come before. “I’m still only 22-year-old and I think every year I should get better,” he added. “I hope next year I will also keep on improving.”
According to UAE’s sports manager Matxin Fernández, the winter transformation has been small tweaks, rather than a complete overhaul of his training program. “It’s personal evolution, a sporting evolution,” Fernández told Rouleur. “It’s experience too, he’s more mature. We’ve been working on defining certain things that went well last year but that we thought could go better this year. There hasn’t been a huge change, but all those small changes add up and he’s getting better and better because he’s getting older and improving and evolving. He’s given us a slightly better version of himself than he did last year. We’ve done a bit more strength work with him, a bit more gym, and he’s worked well with Victor [Moreno Perez] who’s part of the rehabilitation and muscle team. In all aspects, he’s improved a little bit.”
On paper, Ayuso has all the characteristics needed to win a Grand Tour. But UAE, despite their unquenchable thirst for victories, aren’t demanding high-level victories from the young Spanish hope. Not yet, anyway. “In the mountains he is very strong, and in the time trial his level is obvious – he’s a top rider in all aspects, and it’s something that he knows and his rivals also,” Fernández said. “He has mental strength and a winning attitude, too, but his rivals also know he has a few flaws. We don’t put pressure on people – all we look for is that a rider improves every year. Getting results is difficult, and it often doesn’t depend on you; if you’re fighting with an out-of-the-world [Jonas] Vingegaard, it’s going to be more difficult. But Juan each year is better. [Being a leader] is not something that you learn overnight – a sports career is like a school career: every day he’s searching to be the best and he’s achieving it.”
Defeat in Catalunya stung Ayuso – he was caught out by Roglič’s attack on the third last lap in Barcelona, and was unable to bridge the gap to the Slovenian. But throughout the week he demonstrated to himself that he can beat the Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe rider in an uphill sprint – something few others can do – and he can also be canny and win intermediate sprints in the hunt for precious bonus seconds. He might have lost in the Catalan capital, the city of his birth, but there were more reasons to be optimistic than pessimistic.
“He [Roglič] was too strong for me so chapeau to him,” Ayuso said in the aftermath, “but I’m leaving here feeling calm and knowing where I made a mistake.” Speaking like a seasoned poker player, he added: “But I’m not saying what it was.” As he seeks to rectify what few errors he made, Ayuso – said by many of his countrymen to be the heir to Alberto Contador – will do so in the understanding that no other GC rider has had as strong a start to the year as he has. “Compared to last year, I’m a lot better and I need to keep building on top of that,” he said. “I want to be more consistent at this level for the whole season.” The signs suggest he will be.
