Lidl-Trek has a finely-tuned Tour de France plan and great confidence in Ayuso

Juan Ayuso moved from UAE to Lidl-Trek last winter, showed real promise this spring, then suffered a significant run of bad luck, but came back stronger from that too. The Spaniard is in excellent shape heading into the Tour de France, as we can gather from the words of Head Coach Josu Larrazabal, speaking to Bici.pro.

Ayuso's year started very well, with a stage win and overall victory at the Volta ao Algarve. After that came the crash at Paris-Nice, on top of which he also fell ill at the Tour of the Basque Country. "No WorldTour race went as planned," Larrazabal said. "It goes without saying that it wasn't a fun period."

That changed in May, when everything went smoothly. "After he recovered, we went to altitude in Sierra Nevada with Juan and the team. We'd also done some reconnaissance work beforehand. Alongside the training, we did a lot of testing at Sierra Nevada, from equipment to team time trials, and the results were very positive."

That would form the foundation for a strong Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. "We finished fourth in the team time trial there and performed well in the final phase of the race, particularly across the three mountain stages. Those were stages where a breakaway had a chance, and we even managed to win one with Simmons. Not to mention the two second places, which confirm Juan's form."

According to the coach, the progression doesn't stop there. "It certainly doesn't end with the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Even though he lost some time tactically, it wasn't a case of saving energy and doing the bare minimum to get the best possible result. After all, it was still a warm-up race for the Tour."

So what will Ayuso's build-up to the Tour de France look like? "We've still got 11-12 days of altitude training, the riders have been to Andorra since the race, and then we'll arrive in Barcelona. The Tour opens with the team time trial, so we'll arrive a little earlier — we'll train for two days on the Montmeló circuit, the Formula 1 track," the Spaniard explained.

Ayuso should then start the Tour in Barcelona in top form. "His performances at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes were already very good, and what's really improving now is mainly his durability — that is, his ability to sustain the same effort under a greater workload. Essentially, it's about being able to hold certain performances for longer, across multiple days."

In the Tour, that's often a period of two or three days, for example when the mountain stages come thick and fast in weeks two and three. Ayuso will certainly improve further. "It's not as if someone rides the Rhône-Alpes at 90 per cent of their best level and then arrives at the Tour at 95 per cent."

But there isn't a huge amount of margin either. "You already need to be competitive at the Rhône-Alpes and put in very strong performances. Maybe you can shed a bit of weight. Juan can lose half a kilo, maybe one at most, without his power dropping. That also improves his resistance to fatigue," Larrazabal concluded.