Lidl-Trek and Juan Ayuso blown away by Vingegaard's performance on stage 10: '450 watts just to stay on his wheel'

It wasn’t UAE Emirates-XRG or Visma | Lease a Bike, but rather Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe and Lidl-Trek that were the strongest Tour de France teams at the front of the pack on stage 10. Juan Ayuso took over the white jersey from Isaac del Toro on behalf of the latter team , while also moving up to fourth place in the general classification. And so the mood was excellent.

Ayuso, along with teammate Mattias Skjelmose, hung on to the wheel of the leaders, and that ultimately earned them fifth and sixth place. “I’m pretty happy with how the day went, especially after such a grueling stage. UAE did a fantastic job today. The whole team was exceptionally strong, and they rode really hard.”

"It was an incredibly tough day, so I'm glad Skjelmose and I were still in the running in the final. We made up some time on a few competitors and finished in the group battling for the podium."

"I think Tadej is on a different level right now; he's basically riding his own race. But the group fighting for the remaining podium spots crossed the finish line almost simultaneously. So yes, it’s great to be wearing this jersey again,” said Ayuso, who had a brief chat with his former teammate at the finish line .

How does Ayuso see the rest of the stage unfolding, now that he’s in the white jersey? “I think you have to give it your all every day. We can see now that there are about five or six riders vying for the two remaining podium spots. So it’s going to be a very tough battle to make it onto that podium in Paris.”

"But again, we just have to focus on ourselves day by day. Skjelmose rode really strongly today, too, so I think we can both be satisfied," said Ayuso, who even finished ahead of Jonas Vingegaard—who is now in second place.

"In the valley, I was really at my limit. Skjelmose and I were really riding on our last legs. When Jonas went for it—even before the climb, while we were riding in the valley—he pushed the pace so hard that everyone was at their limit. I had to pedal at 450 to 460 watts just to stay on his wheel. So yeah, I really had to give it everything I had to avoid getting dropped. Of course, I would have loved to work with him and take over, but my legs just weren’t up to it,” he explained.

When asked who was the strongest in the chasing group, Ayuso didn’t hesitate for a moment. “Without a doubt, Jonas. You could tell, because he took charge and did almost all the work in the group. But, as I said, I’m happy to be wearing this white jersey again, and we’ll take it day by day.”

'"It's clear that we're in a good position. I feel very strong and I'm in good shape, but I don't want to get carried away. I don't want to think yet about what might happen in two weeks; we really have to take it day by day. Tomorrow is a day when we need to recover as best we can and get through it safely. The same goes for the day after that, so we can start the weekend feeling fresh,” explains the Spaniard.