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Juan Ayuso showed UAE Team Emirates-XRG is about much more than Tadej Pogačar, landing an impressive stage win at Tirreno-Adriatico Saturday and securing the overall lead.
The Spaniard was the strongest rider on the concluding climb of the queen stage, driving the pace from just over 4km to go and dropping all the other GC contenders 700 meters later.
He ploughed on towards the finish, putting time into the deposed race leader Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), and finished 13 seconds ahead of Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) and Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
Ganna trailed in a minute back and slipped to third overall.
“It went really well. The team did an amazing job,” Ayuso said.
He is 37 seconds clear of Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) with one stage remaining. Ganna is one second further behind.
A big GC showdown
The penultimate day of Tirreno-Adriatico was also the queen stage, clocking up 3508 meters of altitude gain.
The 163km race to Frontignano concluded with a tough climb, but several riders weren’t planning on leaving it until the end.
Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) were aggressive early on but it was a number of other riders who went clear inside the first 20 minutes of racing.
These were Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Chris Hamilton (Picnic-PostNL), Samuele Battistella (EF Education-EasyPost), Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), Andrea Pietrobon (Polti-VisitMalta) and Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility).
Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) and Chris Hamilton (Picnic-PostNL) bridged across, and together these nine riders had four and a half minutes with 80km left. However this gap was chipped away continuously by the bunch, and was down to 1:30 with 8km left.
The break hit the final climb soon afterwards and the attacks started.
The GC group was just 23 seconds behind with 5km left, prompting Vendrame to push clear of his remaining companions. UAE Team Emirates-XRG had taken over at the front for second-placed Ayuso, putting pressure on race leader Filippo Gana (Ineos Grenadiers).
Vendrame’s bid was snuffed out with 4.2km left. Ayuso attacked at this point, tracked by Pidcock and Hindley, but didn’t fully commit. This saw others such as Landa and Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) make their way back up.
However Ayuso surged again and once more dragged Pidcock and Hindley clear. He dropped them with 3.3km left, leaving those two chasers and Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step) in pursuit.
They had numerical advantage but that didn’t matter to Ayuso, who sped home to take the stage victory plus the overall lead.
With the sole climb on Sunday’s final stage almost 100km from the finish line, the talented 22 year old—who spent much of his childhood living in the US—is clear favorite to win overall.
