El mejor ciclista del mundo y la figura que espera el pelotón español tejen una relación de piques y respeto en el UAE
elpais.com
Pogacar and Ayuso, two unchained egos
The best cyclist in the world and the figure that the Spanish peloton awaits weave a relationship of competitiveness and respect in the UAE
At the end of training, five and a half hours after leaving, Juan Ayuso and Tadej Pogacar arrive at the foot of the Coll de Rates pass, in the Sierra del Carrascal, the heart of Alicante.
From where they look each other in the face and chat, and challenge each other, up there, to the antennas that mark the top of one of the ports that more cyclists in the world climb to test themselves in winter, there are 650 meters of unevenness that they must overcome ascending along a road of almost 10 kilometers, almost 7% average slope. Pogacar starts right there. He is the best cyclist in the world, the youngest winner of two Tours, the new Merckx sanctified by The Cannibal in person, one of the champions who appears for cycling every 40 years.
Pogacar, 23 years old, starts to the fullest, and Ayuso, 19 years old, clings to his wheel, the unique figure that the Spanish platoon awaits, the youth who is already in the WorldTour, in the Cycling Champions, and does not want to be an extra. To the unleashed rhythm of Pogacar, the same one that destroyed everyone in the Alps and in the Pyrenees last Tour, Ayuso answers him alive. He resists, resists the kid born in Barcelona, raised between Atlanta and Jávea, inhabitant of Andorra now.
They are followed in the UAE Team Emirates car by their team, their director, Joxean Matxin, and their coach, Íñigo San Millán. They see them as a flare that accelerates and they both get excited. What barbarians. They take out the clocks and measure. And they remember that before Coll de Rates they have already uploaded another port. They are letting go of everything they carry inside. It's Sunday, January 9.
When the road inclines a little more, when the ramps are 14%, Pogacar accelerates a bit more and Ayuso lets go. In a few pedal strokes, the Slovenian achieves an advantage of 14-15s. But that's it. Tadej to the top I help to die. The lead is neither shortened nor lengthened.
A few hours later, both cyclists publish the data of the climb on Strava and the cycling world admires and shouts, and makes its calculations, and the networks multiply their knowledge: Pogacar has broken the record for the climb, 24m 50s; 25m 4s for Ayuso. Both have moved during that time a power of about 6.5 watts per kilo. At more than 23 kilometers per hour. In January, two or three months away from his big goals. Tremendous.
This is the sacrament of cycling to come. "These are like that now," says San Millán. "These go to sack from the first race," . This is already a mental stress, and its spiritual nourishment, not from the first race of the year, nor from the first training session in which the young try to impress the old (as Contador did with the old Armstrong who returned to cycling in 2009). This already begins, within the concentration, in the same stress test to which San Millán subjects them the day before, on Saturday, in the laboratory with the stationary bikes to set their training areas and their power at different levels, which are turns into a duel. “I put both of them at the same time so that they get itchy, so that Tadej sees that he cannot relax because Ayuso arrives strong, and the other so that he sees that he is approaching the best.
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