Juan Ayuso was one of the most active riders in the first mountain stage of the Vuelta a España. The Spanish rider attacked on the final climb but couldn’t escape and ended up settling for third place. “The wind made the breakaway difficult.”
Ayuso shared his feelings through UAE Team Emirates’ social media. “Today I wanted to try something on the final climb to go back in time. However, that was tough due to the strong wind.” The 20-year-old Spaniard is currently in eleventh place in the general classification. He’s just under 40 seconds behind the leader, Remco Evenepoel.
Ayuso attempted to vie for victory in the last few hundred meters but didn’t come close to Evenepoel. “Marc Soler tried to help me, but it was tough to overtake Remco with such a finish. But this result boosts my confidence for the upcoming mountain stages.”
Therefore, the feeling within the UAE Team Emirates was that of “mission accomplished,” as shown in the video below.