From childhood from “New Messi” to the scientific rigor of a maniacal preparation, Ayuso affirms itself as the new face of cycling: ambitious, brilliant and already leader among the grown -ups
It is never a coincidence when Juan Ayuso wins. At most it is “special”, as he says as soon as he crossed the finish line, because it is the first time in a big lap, and he had dreamed of it since he was a child and his friend Mateo took him out by bicycle. That day his life changed, he always changes when we understand that we came into the world to do exactly that thing there. Until then he had always imagined becoming the best footballer in the world, “the new Messi” he said. The new Messi was thought when he played on the street in Atlanta, where his parents – economists both – had moved for work. The new Messi was thought when they returned to Spain, and Juan went to play in the CD canils and train in Valdebebas, where there is the Real Madrid sports center. He stopped being so convinced when the coach failed him to make his right back, so far from the door he did not know how to decline his ambitions. When they moved to Jávea, halfway between Valencia and Alicante, he tried for a while with the sail, until Mateo proposed him a bike ride. That day Juan Ayuso knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life: he would become the best cyclist in the world.
Tadej and Juan
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Today who is twenty -two years old Ayuso has not changed his mind, but he found himself running in the UAE Team Emirates and the best cyclist in the world is a teammate of his, Tadej Pogacar, who is just four years older than him. When they train together they record the same Watt. From the top of its 95 wins among the professionals, the Slovenian immediately congratulated Ayuso, “the first is always special”. The last words between them were in the name of relaxation: Ayuso explained that his project is “to become strong as Vingegaard, Evenepoel and Roglic”, leaving Pogacar out that “it is the messenger of cycling”. Last year at the Tour de France they had precedents not exactly in the name of diplomacy, culminating in the Galibier stage when Ayuso had left Almeida to pull for the captain and in some sections he had even put himself in a wheel of Pogacar, leaving his magical circle. Many teams, sensed the situation, had moved on to snatch the young Spanish talent from the UAE, but then the team chose not to deprive itself of so much magic: simply Pogacar and Ayuso will run great different laps, without annoying.
early talent
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A diligent child of parents passionate about numbers, Juan has applied his studies to bicycle and his declared goal of drawing the maximum result. Matxin, the Basque manager of the UAE, discovered him when Ayuso was just 15 years old, and was hit by his ambition and awareness: Juan had given up adolescence for a super professional preparation and nutrition regime. “I never went out in the evening with my friends,” he said. Followed by the training tables prepared by the dad on Excel sheets, ate what the nutrition experts suggested to him and went to bed soon. “Juan knows nutrition, biomechanics, physiology, glycogen, lactate, watt, heart rate,” said Gorka Prieto, his nutritionist. In this Ayuso is in the future compared to traditional runners, accustomed to doing what he wondered without discussing too much or interest that much. Killer, Matxin calls him that. And José Antonio Mantilla, who had him in his youth team in Cantabria, recalls that Ayuso was already interested in mechanics, physiology and power as a boy. He began to win very early, and the Spaniards wondering if it was the new Contador or rather the new Indurain. He trains him íñigo San Millán, physiologist and professor at the University of Colorado, who previously prepared – look at the coincidence – Pogacar. Ayuso says it is a perfect machine, sometimes a little obsessive, much more mature than his age, revealed only by the recent signs of the acne. When by bus laws they are never novels, but studies of physiology and essays on the functioning of the mind. The psychologist Pablo Enríquez is another fundamental card in the Ayuso puzzle.
ambition and calm
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He is just 22 years old but charisma enough because long -course men like Rafa Majka and Adam Yates accept without problems of Gregari. Maybe there were some doubts about another talent on the launching pad, Isaac of Toro, who is even younger than Ayuso: as long as he was in front of him in the standings, it was suspected that he could do with his captain what he had done with Pogacar, but the first uphill arrival made evident tactics and hierarchies. And they are probably the same sports directors of the UAE who want two points in the team and in the standings: to beat Roglic, who won the first round at Vuelta in Catalunya, at the end of March, nothing better than opposing quality and quantity. Four years ago Matxin proposed to the head of keeping him a little in Bergamo among the under 23, to avoid a too sharp jump among the professionals. Juan the killer made himself known for what he was: a war machine, which came out to train with any time, and who went to sleep very early to recover the best. Meanwhile, he studied: to the Englishman absorbed as a child in the States and reiterated to the British college of Jávea, he added the Italian practiced in the six months to Villa d’Almé. He dominated the Giro under 23, but already then he hatched the dream of taking the pink jersey among the professionals. Ambition and calm are in perfect balance in him. Third at the Vuelta before turning twenty years, two years ago an injury kept him away from the bike for three months, and did not fall into depression only thanks to his family, his partner Laura, and Victor Moreno, one of the team physiotherapists. Ayuso attacks from afar, goes strongly to stopwatch, he is quick in the sprint, uphill he hardly gets up on the pedals. Light like a climber, he weighs 65 kilos, he is as high as a classic runner, one and eighty -three, but he says he does not feel cut for one -day races. In Tagliacozzo he won his first stop in a large lap and the pink jersey returned to Rogic’s shoulders: glory without responsibility, an ideal, perfect situation. When they pointed out to him a flash of annoyance, but perhaps it was a flicker of improvisation, he passed on the face as a boy of Ayuso. “I want the pink jersey.” And if he wants it, we can be sure that he has already studied how to take it out.
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