Juan Ayuso discussion thread

[Red Rick]

If Lidl sells him after 3 or 4 years, that could be a good deal for them.

He's gonna be unsellable after 3/4 years.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

He's gonna be unsellable after 3/4 years.

Not necessarily, but it's not unlikely at all that he goes down in history as cycling's Jadon Sancho.

 

[Red Rick]

Not necessarily, but it's not unlikely at all that he goes down in history as cycling's Jadon Sancho.

Even their names sound similar.

 

[primoz]

I assume there was a buy out fee, which is then amortized over a longer period of time.

Basically the same reason Chelsea is giving their players 8 year contracts.

Chelsea must comply with PSR (Profit and Sustainability Rules), in cycling there are no such restrictions.
Ayuso already had a fat long contract with UAE so I assume he wouldn't leave unless Lidl offered him similar. Being undisputed leader is nice, being leader 90% of time at UAE and having guaranteed future was not that bad either.

 

[Wyndbrook]

He will need to get on with it, Hudson's coming and he will gunning for the Lidl team leader spot.

 

[Cycling111]

I said this before in the Red Bull thread and now I read that...

Red Bull and LIDL are going to start having the same ego problems as other teams due to overbooking of young talents.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1971664760812064803

View: https://x.com/laflammerouge16/status/1971664760812064803

 

[Lequack]

I said this before in the Red Bull thread and now I read that...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1971664760812064803

View: https://x.com/laflammerouge16/status/1971664760812064803

Sweet summer Skjelmose.

 

[Danskebjerge]

The only good reason for Lidl-Trek to employ Ayuso is his GC capabilities (handy when Skjelmose has crashed yet again) and maybe , in theory, a favourable transfer. But he could put the team spirit in jeopardy.

 

[Peyroteo94]

I said this before in the Red Bull thread and now I read that...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1971664760812064803

View: https://x.com/laflammerouge16/status/1971664760812064803

Beautiful!

 

[saunaking]

Giro squad - Milan and his lead out men, Ciccone as stagehunter

Tour squad - Pedersen and Ayuso plus full support for Ayuso

Vuelta squad - Milan and his lead out men, Skjelmose GC

Probably another GT for Ayuso, Skjelmose and/or Ciccone - but I think that will be kind of the main focus in terms of GT for Ayuso, Pedersen and Milan at least.

Actually more difficulties to be expected for Skjelmose rather than for Pedersen and Milan I guess… Ayuso transfer will have a massive impact on Skjelmoses future GC bids

They give him all this money to only race him in the GT he can never win?

but really, he's totally capable of more GT podiums, i just can't wait til UAE guys chase him everywhere

 

[elguapo]

They give him all this money to only race him in the GT he can never win?

but really, he's totally capable of more GT podiums, i just can't wait til UAE guys chase him everywhere

Juan would be having a Spanish duo in Carlos Verona as veteran domestic and Hector Alvarez as understudy.

 

[veganrob]

He's gonna be unsellable after 3/4 years.

Some team will take a chance on him but his value will not be good.

 

[memyselfandI]

Crazy to say on a serious note that Ayuso can't win a gt. For sure he can, he's just been in a bad position and mentally overcooked up to a point. There's lots of positives up ahead. From performance point of view he's gt winner size.

So maybe bit overdramatizing here me thinks. Trek now have two heavyweight gc caps, it's not too stacked for gc tops. They can split programs.

I think Skjelmose is pretty good athlete, who can put more effort on staying upright in races, than giving open welcome comments about new team member. Maybe could benefit some media training too. He should see glass half full not half empty.

 

[LongtimeLurker]

I do not see any change in Ayuso on the road if he carries on doing what he does and surrounds himself with the people he does. I hope Trek see this and put boundaries in place. Even maybe Ayuso see's this.

Will be a 2yr deal and the same process with UAE.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

I said this before in the Red Bull thread and now I read that...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1971664760812064803

View: https://x.com/laflammerouge16/status/1971664760812064803

I understand why he's apprehensive about someone with Ayuso's reputation joining, but it's completely out of order to be airing your grievances in the media before you've even met the guy. That's more of a d*ck move than Ayuso himself has ever pulled.

Also, Skjelmose should full well know that he isn't going to be a top-drawer GT rider and that's what Lidl's primary goal with Ayuso will be. For the classics and the one-week races, which should be his focus anyway, not much is changing.

 

[AlfaLum]

I see it a bit different. Skjelmose has never been like this in the media before. In fact i would say he is part of a group of riders that come across as a very tight collective. Pedersen, Ciccone, Skjelmose, Milan etc. all have their chances and all have worked for eachother in the past when needed.

Now all of a sudden Skjelmose releases this in the media. And he is a guy from within the cycling world so he probably hears about things every day. Which means that Ayuso must have quite a bit of a reputation for a future team mate to release this in the media.

Add on top of that the new Cycle of interviews were Ayuso again comes across as very childish. Blaming his team for having no self-critisism, while actually not having shown any self-critisism in the past himself. And I can only conclude that Lidl-Trek are playing with fire and putting at risk the tight collective they have created these past years.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I understand why he's apprehensive about someone with Ayuso's reputation joining, but it's completely out of order to be airing your grievances in the media before you've even met the guy. That's more of a d*ck move than Ayuso himself has ever pulled.

Also, Skjelmose should full well know that he isn't going to be a top-drawer GT rider and that's what Lidl's primary goal with Ayuso will be. For the classics and the one-week races, which should be his focus anyway, not much is changing.

Having listened to the snippet from the interview, he only seems genuinely annoyed with the team not telling him anything. The parts about Ayuso not wanting to work for anyone (which was followed by him saying that it might just have been because UAE treated Ayuso badly) and him not wanting to go to the Tour with Ayuso were said in jest.

When Skjelmose, Ciccone and Geoghegan Hart haven't performed in GTs it obviously makes perfect sense for them to be looking elsewhere, and they probably didn't want to inform anyone before deal was finalised, but if they've given Skjelmose the impression he still had full support he has a reason to be disgruntled now.

 

[noob]

Having listened to the snippet from the interview, he only seems genuinely annoyed with the team not telling him anything. The parts about Ayuso not wanting to work for anyone (which was followed by him saying that it might just have been because UAE treated Ayuso badly) and him not wanting to go to the Tour with Ayuso were said in jest.

This is how I took it too. Imagine the team not telling you anything, and here you are in front of the media before the team has even told you. If you're not pissed by your team at that moment you're a Saint lol.

(And oh the joy of journalists asking him a question to get the quote they want. And whoever edited the page to lift up the quote and take it out of context 🙄 )

 

[SafeBet]

I don't think informing riders of future transfers / contract negotiations is standard procedure for any professional team.
Unless you're a Pogacar level of athlete and can partly dictate the team personnel decisions.

 

[Cycling111]

Is it Gianetti's fault that Bjerg was upset with his selfishness?

Jan Christen know what has to do, and if he ends up leaving the team, he'll say it was all everyone else's fault, except his.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Apparently the buy out is 10M and Trek are paying Ayuso 5M a year (he had to pay the buy out himself).

Trek, overpaying TGH after a potentially career altering injury before seeing him back in action (and post-Froome), doing the same again with Kämna and now this. They are world class at wasting money.

 

[Valv.Piti]

I understand why he's apprehensive about someone with Ayuso's reputation joining, but it's completely out of order to be airing your grievances in the media before you've even met the guy. That's more of a d*ck move than Ayuso himself has ever pulled.

Also, Skjelmose should full well know that he isn't going to be a top-drawer GT rider and that's what Lidl's primary goal with Ayuso will be. For the classics and the one-week races, which should be his focus anyway, not much is changing.

Fully agree, but its classic Skjelmose. Comes across like a total jerk!

 

[VayaVayaVaya]

Am I misremembering or did Skjelmose come out a couple years ago and say something to the effect that he has narcissistic personality disorder but is working on it?

 

[noob]

I don't think informing riders of future transfers / contract negotiations is standard procedure for any professional team.
Unless you're a Pogacar level of athlete and can partly dictate the team personnel decisions.

That makes me think teams are really stupid. If the media is informed of new colleagues at the same time as old colleagues are informed they're asking for problems.

That's how to do it if you want old colleagues to quit/make everyone feel precarious.

 

[Netserk]

Fully agree, but its classic Skjelmose. Comes across like a total jerk!

A careless loudmouth who likes to hear his own yap.

Give me Rogla the sphinx any day over that!