Juan Ayuso discussion thread

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Nothing in this Giro particularly stood out unless we're supposed to believe Ayuso dropped on purpose while still riding for his own GC.

It's really only this gigantic thing because he failed to pull for Pogacar once in the Tour de France, and Almeida made a huge deal about it. Ironically enough, Almeida failed to pull for Pogacar in that exact same way several times throughout the Tour.
It’s already been talked about that Almeida didn’t pull because he was dropped and the other time you bring up Almeida was next in line in front of Pogacar but Pogacar just skipped Almeida and attacked. When called upon, Almeida worked. That’s not what Ayuso did.
 
1987 Giro Roche and Eddy Schepers vs Visentini and the rest of the team (Carrera). Roche said "I did not attack Visentini, I followed the breaks". At the start of Stage 15, Visentini led Roche by 2 mins 42 secs. Roche put nearly 7 minutes into Visentini in the stage by following the breaks. Roche won the giro and Visentini ended up abandoning. It's known as the great betrayal and was the most dramatic inter-team rivalry.
Isn’t that when Roche didn’t trust anyone bar other English members of staff or other riders and was looking out for anyone Italian.
 
It’s already been talked about that Almeida didn’t pull because he was dropped and the other time you bring up Almeida was next in line in front of Pogacar but Pogacar just skipped Almeida and attacked. When called upon, Almeida worked. That’s not what Ayuso did.

The question answers itself really, i.e. the only reason Ayuso has become such a polarizing rider in online discussions and basically a lightning rod for angst and ire is because of Pog, Almeida and UAE fans erupting at the slightest hint of anything Ayuso. People can deny it but anyone who's pretty much ambivalent on the topic will have a good head scratch when seeing all the exaggerated hate this rider gets.

For example if the internet was populated by Geraint Thomas fans we'd be constantly hearing something similar about Chris Froome because yes, he attacked Thomas in the 2018 TdF, i.e. one example among countless others in cycling of such things (& way more obvious than anything Ayuso did last year). But, Pog and UAE have a huge amount of fans so absolutely everything that happens in UAE gets totally blown out of proportion.

Personally speaking I'll go straight to the point here and say despite the fact the evidence against Ayuso being a "terrible teammate" and rider is tenuous at best (like I said there are way more obvious examples of 'betrayals' that hardly get mentioned because the proportion of fans who make a fuss is way smaller), would it even matter... if Ayuso was actually a bad teammate towards Pog and Almeida? I mean seriously?

This is pro-sport. The value of a man on a bike is not determined by how well he serves Pog & UAE.
 
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The question answers itself really, i.e. the only reason Ayuso has become such a polarizing rider in online discussions and basically a lightning rod for angst and ire is because of Pog, Almeida and UAE fans erupting at the slightest hint of anything Ayuso. People can deny it but anyone who's pretty much ambivalent on the topic will have a good head scratch when seeing all the exaggerated hate this rider gets.

For example if the internet was populated by Geraint Thomas fans we'd be constantly hearing something similar about Chris Froome because yes, he attacked Thomas in the 2018 TdF, i.e. one example among countless others in cycling of such things (& way more obvious than anything Ayuso did last year). But, Pog and UAE have a huge amount of fans so absolutely everything that happens in UAE gets totally blown out of proportion.

Personally speaking I'll go straight to the point here and say despite the fact the evidence against Ayuso being a "terrible teammate" and rider is tenuous at best (like I said there are way more obvious examples of 'betrayals' that hardly get mentioned because the proportion of fans who make a fuss is way smaller), would it even matter... if Ayuso was actually a bad teammate towards Pog and Almeida? I mean seriously?

This is pro-sport. The value of a man on a bike is not determined by how well he serves Pog & UAE.
Today when the *** hits the fan, he’s going to drop before Pedersen does on Angliru - rather making himself look bad than god forbid being of any use for the team. If you think he gets disproportional amount of hate, I challenge you to come up with another guy who does something like that to that extent. Pretending you don’t have the legs so you don’t need to help your teammates is just so wrong and if you can’t see that, I don’t know what to tell you.

I’m a Pog fan and I have never written anything bad about Ayuso until this Vuelta. It’s not the refusal to submit to Pog that bothers me, it’s him sabotaging his teammates deliberately for no personal gain that does it.
 
The question answers itself really, i.e. the only reason Ayuso has become such a polarizing rider in online discussions and basically a lightning rod for angst and ire is because of Pog, Almeida and UAE fans erupting at the slightest hint of anything Ayuso. People can deny it but anyone who's pretty much ambivalent on the topic will have a good head scratch when seeing all the exaggerated hate this rider gets.

For example if the internet was populated by Geraint Thomas fans we'd be constantly hearing something similar about Chris Froome because yes, he attacked Thomas in the 2018 TdF, i.e. one example among countless others in cycling of such things (& way more obvious than anything Ayuso did last year). But, Pog and UAE have a huge amount of fans so absolutely everything that happens in UAE gets totally blown out of proportion.

Personally speaking I'll go straight to the point here and say despite the fact the evidence against Ayuso being a "terrible teammate" and rider is tenuous at best (like I said there are way more obvious examples of 'betrayals' that hardly get mentioned because the proportion of fans who make a fuss is way smaller), would it even matter... if Ayuso was actually a bad teammate towards Pog and Almeida? I mean seriously?

This is pro-sport. The value of a man on a bike is not determined by how well he serves Pog & UAE.
I would also say that it's a fan fabricated drama. I never thought Pogacar seemed remotely bothered about the Galibier stage - it was Almeida who appeared frustrated with Ayuso. Pogacar and Ayuso don't race together loads so I suppose it's easy for people to say they don't get on etc, but as far as I'm aware there's never actually been any obvious sign of this.
 
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Today when the *** hits the fan, he’s going to drop before Pedersen does on Angliru - rather making himself look bad than god forbid being of any use for the team. If you think he gets disproportional amount of hate, I challenge you to come up with another guy who does something like that to that extent.

Among countless others I'll say straight off the bat Tom Pidcock in the 2023 TdF when he deliberately went rogue and avoided helping Carlos Rodriguez. People collectively shrugged.

It raised a few eyebrows and then everyone just got on with it. The very fact there's a real vocal element regurgitating the same biased appraisal of Ayuso's "sins" is pretty much evidence of Pog and UAE having a very committed and I'd wager younger fanbase, aka fans who might not have seen what this sport can deliver in terms of intra-team frictions and often downright hostilities. I say that because there's plenty of commentary from people on social media who're kidding themselves when they claim (I'll paraphrase here) Ayuso has somehow "damaged his own brand".

The fact is unless you're a hugely invested Pog, Almeida and UAE fan, no one cares. Nothing Ayuso has done on the negative scale stands out on its own merit.
 
I would also say that it's a fan fabricated drama. I never thought Pogacar seemed remotely bothered about the Galibier stage - it was Almeida who appeared frustrated with Ayuso. Pogacar and Ayuso don't race together loads so I suppose it's easy for people to say they don't get on etc, but as far as I'm aware there's never actually been any obvious sign of this.
The way Pog wrote messages to Del Toro telling him he would win the Giro when Ayuso was still the team's official leader is not a small sign of that? Or Ayuso never being put in the same races? And when he does like in Canada last year, he pulls for one kilometer on a flat road and then calls it a day because he thinks it looked like he put in an effort for the team.