Juan Ayuso discussion thread

canina82 · 2026-02-24T20:02:09+0000

Ayuso always showed a great level early in the season. I don't get this hype to be honest. It's the same thing over and over again.

Unchained · 2026-02-24T21:35:00+0000

canina82 said:
Ayuso always showed a great level early in the season. I don't get this hype to be honest. It's the same thing over and over again.

Each time you reshuffle the deck the cards come out differently.
Ayuso, Remco, Roglic, Cian, Girmay, Gee, list is pretty long of riders who have made changes trying to come up with correct combination for success.
The case of Juan Ayuso is of cycling professionals showing deep confidence in his abilities. UAE signed him to long term contract, and now Trek looked at him and decided that 5 years was a workable time frame. Something about the way Juan talks and rides, trains, races has been recognized by top teams, UAE and Trek that he is an outstanding long term prospect. The best in the business see potential in him.

pablohidalgo7 · 2026-02-25T10:39:52+0000

Del Toro is more explosive and a better classics rider overall (his ease on gravel, for example, is tremendous).
However, Ayuso isn't far behind him in terms of climbing explosiveness, especially on climbs longer than 5-10 minutes, where I feel Del Toro is almost invincible. But in a sprint after a 20-30 minute climb, I'm not so sure about the difference between them.

Then it's clear that Ayuso is the best time trialist, and in my opinion, his w/kg on standard climbs (20-30 minutes) is also slightly superior, although Del Toro, on Jebel Jais, demonstrated a level similar to Ayuso's usual performance on those types of climbs during the spring months.

In Grand Tours, both leave doubts, but I still think that without the crash that changed everything on the gravel stage, Roglic and Ayuso would have dominated the Giro ahead of the three who made it to the podium. However, Del Toro has improved since then.

Final verdict: They are very evenly matched, but I think that in a week-long stage race with a significant time trial, Ayuso remains the favorite. However, I think the opposite is true for a one-day race.
Ideally, Roglic would recover the form he showed in last year's Volta a Catalunya to better measure both Del Toro and Ayuso at the Itzulia Basque Country. I still think he could teach them a lesson.

Red Rick · 2026-02-25T12:29:27+0000

Profile wise I think Ayuso is indeed more for the longer climbs and TTs than Del Toro. Del Toro doesn't really seem to do consistent efforts and really love his tempo changes, and I wonder if his ability on shorter climbs isn't slightly overrated because his turn of speed is so huge. He doesn't seem to have great endurance in one day races, he'll look great, then crack, but despite cracking he tends to recover and win the group sprints and whatnot.

They even have pretty similar profiles in one day races, but it's hard to rate Ayuso for Liege and Lombardia because he's been frozen out his entire UAE career.

Whether Ayuso is a good signign for Lidl, it really depends on if UAE got the most out of him or not, because if you can't make Ayuso better it seems like an extraordinarily expensive deal.

Jan the Man · 2026-02-25T12:37:01+0000

fenns said:
for me the exciting thing about Ayuso is that we don't really know how good he is because he's been inhibited by being with UAE. He always looked in control last week against strong competitors

I don’t necessarily agree he was inhibited by UAE.

He had a couple of shots at GT leadership which fell by the wayside, in his last year not necessarily his fault due to bad luck etc and he was the obvious one to leave given where he, Almeida and del Torro were in their careers.

He was backed and did well in some early season races for UAE- Tirreno/Pais Vasco 24 and Tirreno/Catalunya 25. I hope he has a great season and can find the consistency and element of luck required to progress in a GT.

His form in these week long stage races should surprise no one given his pedigree the last couple of seasons.

Unchained · 2026-02-25T16:14:26+0000

Red Rick said:
Profile wise I think Ayuso is indeed more for the longer climbs and TTs than Del Toro. Del Toro doesn't really seem to do consistent efforts and really love his tempo changes, and I wonder if his ability on shorter climbs isn't slightly overrated because his turn of speed is so huge. He doesn't seem to have great endurance in one day races, he'll look great, then crack, but despite cracking he tends to recover and win the group sprints and whatnot.

They even have pretty similar profiles in one day races, but it's hard to rate Ayuso for Liege and Lombardia because he's been frozen out his entire UAE career.

Whether Ayuso is a good signign for Lidl, it really depends on if UAE got the most out of him or not, because if you can't make Ayuso better it seems like an extraordinarily expensive deal.

I don't see anything about either rider having depth for something like Liege at @250k+..Lombardy also outside of Del Toro's tested range at 240+.
Ayuso is not scheduled for Strade Bianchi..at @200 Del Toro is there to support Tadej Pogacar, not sure either Del Toro or Ayuso have anything in the tank against pure power guys like MVP. Juan is scheduled for Paris-Nice and we will see if he carries his excellent form and list of competitors is very good.. Maybe see were Ayuso sizes up against Vingegaard currently.
I don't know the details of the deal but Trek signing Juan for 5 years is pretty bold.
Ayuso spent time in Atlanta and his English reflects it.. All interviews in Spanish are about @75% above my ability.. Del Toro's English speed is perfect for me.. Lol

Cycling111 · 2026-02-25T18:21:40+0000

Vote for Ayuso in the poll. Judging by the opinions, it's not reflected in the result.

https://forum.cyclingnews.com/threads/third-candidate-for-the-tour-de-france.41330/

hayneplane · 2026-02-25T21:28:56+0000

Ayuso currently has the best flat TT of every GC candidate outside of Remco and this can carry him to a lot of 1 week stage race success.

Hopefully facing Jonas in Paris-Nice will add to the climbing data ahead of the Tour.

canina82 · 2026-02-25T21:43:44+0000

hayneplane said:
Ayuso currently has the best flat TT of every GC candidate outside of Remco and this can carry him to a lot of 1 week stage race success.

Hopefully facing Jonas in Paris-Nice will add to the climbing data ahead of the Tour.

No, he doesn't. Another myth created because he usually overperforms early in the season, specially in TTs.
Here, you can find all Ayuso flat TT results in his career. This shows Ayuso is not the second best at all when it really matters.