With regards to being a younger, aspiring GC contender and also you’re in the identical staff as Tadej Pogačar, it may’t be easy. However in accordance with Juan Ayuso, Pogačar’s teammate at UAE, who makes no secret of his personal Grand Tour ambitions, that is precisely why he likes it.
As Ayuso sees it, Pogačar is one of the best racer on the planet, and that makes the Slovenian what the 22-year-old calls ‘the one who units the bar, and we attempt to attain it’ – even when such a mission is definitely borderline inconceivable and Pogačar is working in a league of his personal.
“My buddies from exterior biking see Tadej doing his stuff and so they ask me – is that ordinary?” Ayuso explains throughout his staff coaching camp in Alicante this winter. “And I at all times say, No, it isn’t regular. He simply makes it look like it is the simplest factor on the planet.
“He is like Leo Messi in soccer. You see Messi dribbling the ball previous his rivals like there’s nothing to it. However you understand, after all, that that is not the case.”
But even when he has not bought Tadej Pogačar’s palmares, Ayuso has his personal share of prodigious, precocious expertise. He was third general within the 2022 Vuelta a España, his first ever Grand Tour, aged 19, thereby changing into the second youngest rider ever to make the rostrum of a three-week race after Henri Cornet gained the Tour de France in 1904, 118 years earlier than, simply forward of his twentieth birthday.
Then regardless of his late begin to 2023 due to a leg damage, Ayuso adopted that up with a fourth place general within the Vuelta and winner of the Greatest Younger Rider classification. This was a step down when it comes to the general hierarchy, however because the best-placed rider not racing for Jumbo-Visma in a Grand Tour GC the place the Dutch squad obliterated the opposition, it was removed from a step again.
Since then Ayuso has gone on exhibiting flashes of notable brilliance – however curiously sufficient, not within the Grand Excursions. In 2024, Ayuso was the fiercest opponent of Visma and Jonas Vingegaard in Tirreno-Adriatico, the place he claimed the opening time trial and completed second general.
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He gained the general of an version of Itzulia Basque Nation that was overshadowed by the horrible mid-race crashes of Vingegaard Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and Ayuso’s personal teammate Jay Vine, amongst many others – however which nonetheless culminated in a beautiful final day battle between Ayuso, Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) and defeated race chief Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek).
Up to now so superb, however then Ayuso’s much-anticipated Tour de France debut, working for Pogačar, went severely askew. Firstly, he was affected by a heavy crash and compulsory abandon mid-way by his warm-up race, the Critérium du Dauphiné, after which throughout the Tour itself, Ayuso practically bought dropped on the opening stage. That extreme wobble was adopted by a short however intense second of controversy excessive on the Galibier three days later when UAE teammate João Almeida visibly waved an arm in what gave the impression to be frustration at Ayuso for seemingly not pulling his weight on the ascent. “Some gestures should not crucial and that was certainly one of them, however that’s what it’s,” Ayuso informed reporters the following day at the beginning.
Issues bought no higher as Ayuso was obliged to desert with COVID-19 every week later and his sickness really defined why he had not been firing on all cylinders early on. However by then the fuse had already been lit on the hypothesis concerning the Galibier which in flip morphed into later, equally unsubstantiated, rumours that he would possibly break his contract, swap groups and transfer onto Movistar in 2025
Ayuso later claimed what occurred on the Galibier was in no way important and the hatchet had been buried. However in a way, that hardly mattered. The larger situation was that in a squad as stacked with expertise as UAE, hypothesis about inner energy struggles not often, if ever, materializes into something concrete, a minimum of to the world at giant. That makes such moments because the Almeida arm-wave way more vital than they really are – and makes Ayuso’s rationalization to a query about how Pogačar’s UAE teammates work with such a robust chief much more fascinating.
The reply, Ayuso says, is to not struggle the additional strain that brings or heightened expectations, however to take advantage of them to your – and the staff’s – benefit.
“For certain I believe we’re among the finest groups on the planet, and that does imply many teammates at a really excessive stage,” Ayuso argues.
“That additionally brings the entire stage of the staff up as a result of in order for you an opportunity, you understand you actually should carry out. You already know there are going to be riders which might be simply higher than you, and whom you may want to assist. However that is additionally motivation as a result of it means you’ll be able to’t calm down,” he explains.
All of it however goes with out saying that for a overwhelming majority of riders, together with Ayuso, Tadej Pogačar represents the last word excellent when it comes to efficiency. However Ayuso is at pains to emphasize that he doesn’t see him as a rival, and pleads with assembled reporters that when he says that he needs to be higher than Pogačar, it shouldn’t get misinterpreted.
“What I imply is after all you wish to be higher than him as a result of he is one of the best rider on the planet. In my case, I dream of being, someday, like him. However if you wish to be like him it’s important to beat him,” Ayuso says.
“However I do not need this to be a misunderstanding, [for somebody] to say that he is a rival [for me]. It is greater than he units the bar and now we have to try to attain it.”
Nevertheless, as anybody who hasn’t been sleeping below a rock this 12 months will know from his runaway success in 2024, Pogačar isn’t just setting the bar however virtually continuously elevating it. In order Ayuso factors out, the actual fact the Slovenian operates in a league of his personal means he might be massively admired. However when it comes to his strategy to racing, Pogačar being such an distinctive racer means there are additionally some extreme limitations on what Ayuso believes he can really study from him.
“It is onerous to get any recommendation as he is one of the best on the planet and all the things he does he makes it appear simpler than it really is,” Ayuso causes, earlier than including with a smile, “Nevertheless it’s positively higher, anyway, to have him in your aspect than as an opponent.”
The Galibier Query
The query of whether or not Ayuso would rein in his personal targets turned a topic of very public dialogue following Almeida’s gesture in the direction of his teammate on the Galibier stage once they have been all working for Pogačar. However the Spaniard insists the entire story was blown out of proportion, and that he and Pogačar cleared the air utterly only a few weeks later.
“We talked once we have been within the Canadian races that summer season. I assumed it was crucial as a result of rather a lot had been mentioned within the media, and greater than something I needed to clear issues up. And he appreciated that, whereas he mentioned a few issues which I used to be grateful for, too.”
Slightly than there being a query of Ayuso not pulling his weight to resolve, he says, what was at stake of their Canada conversations was his personal frustration about under-performing due to catching COVID throughout the Tour.
“After what occurred, with me not with the ability to be there to assist, and solely on the race for one and a half mountain levels, I could not present what I used to be in a position to do. So I had some conversations with him in personal and he understood that, and I respect that rather a lot about him as a result of he at all times takes the time with these types of questions,” explains the Spaniard.
“Even when he is successful and it is really easy for him, he realises that for others it may not be, and that makes it simpler for everyone else to work with him.”
If there was ever any discord throughout the staff, Ayuso is markedly taking part in it down, then, and he gently brushes apart a query concerning the rumours that he might have damaged his present contract – which lasts till 2028 – and headed to Movistar by saying he is very blissful in UAE and “I do not want to consider anything.”
What he does mirror on, although, and intimately, is how he can enhance his present performances each by ironing out some factors the place his season went askew in earlier years and concurrently upping his recreation within the mountains.
“One of many features I am focussing on is to extend the hours of coaching load as I am now getting older,” he says.
On prime of that, “I’ve finished the Tour de Romandie 3 times. And whereas 2023 would not depend as a result of I had an damage, in 2022 and once more in 2024 I used to be going properly however then midway by the race, I blew up.
“So it is clear one thing needed to change as a result of at that time of the 12 months subsequent season, fairly than easing again as I’ve finished, this time I am going onto the Giro,” he factors out.
“So proper now I am coaching much more simply than in different years and I am altering a whole lot of issues when it comes to preparation, too.”
Unsurprisingly, he is not overly keen to say what the specifics of these switches are. However as he places it, one objective for 2025 is to enhance his climbing, and hopefully, these modifications will produce that.
“I have been thought-about just about a mountain racer, however now my wins have been totally on the TT bike, in order that’s a bit bizarre,” he says.
“However, today time trialling is actually vital for GC guys as a result of it is so onerous to take again one or two minutes on the climbs, whereas in a time trial, you’ll be able to simply lose that period of time.
“So I have already got my time trialling in my favour. However now, I do wish to focus extra on climbing and try to shut the hole on the highest riders, guys like Remco [Evenepoel] and [Primož] Roglič (Purple Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).”
There are different vital modifications for 2025 for Ayuso. With the Giro d’Italia as his huge objective for 2025, Ayuso says he’ll begin racing a lot later than in 2024 when he was successful hilly one-day races in France as early as February. Though his debut occasion is but to be determined, he’ll have one other crack at Tirreno-Adriatico earlier than heading to the Volta a Catalunya, a spell of altitude coaching after which on to the Grande Partenza and his Giro debut in early Might.
With no Pogačar in both the Italian or the Catalan week-long stage races, it is cheap to imagine that Ayuso could have a number one function, and that is one thing that – if it wasn’t clear sufficient from his profession to this point – he relishes. “For me, it is vital to be a staff chief as a result of the strain you placed on your self will not be the identical,” he recognises, earlier than including, “I requested a whole lot of myself within the Tour de France as a result of it was my first ever Tour and I needed to do it in addition to potential.
“However when issues rely extra on you, it is one thing particular that additionally modifications a bit, and that additional motivation is essential. It is one thing I’ve at all times had in me since I used to be younger.”
Whether or not Ayuso co-leads on the Giro on his personal or works for Pogačar is, after all, the massive query mark nonetheless hanging over his pathway by the 2025 season. However be it getting his personal likelihood to shine or racing for the Slovenian, as Ayuso says, in a single key sense – it would not actually matter.
“If Tadej is there it modifications all the things a bit, however when it comes to preparation it modifications nothing”, Ayuso insists. “You put together one of the best ways you’ll be able to, and if Tadej goes then we race a method, if he would not then we race one other.
“Both approach, as much as the Giro begin, the main target and approach to strategy it’s on doing one of the best efficiency we are able to.” Both approach, too, be it in Grand Excursions, week-long races or one-day Classics, Ayuso’s ambition to succeed seems to be burning extra fiercely than ever. And that is one thing he and his staff chief Pogačar actually have in frequent.
