Lidl-Trek places three riders in Tour de France top 10 as Juan Ayuso breathes sigh of relief

The first real general classification day of the Tour de France is done and dusted, and Lidl-Trek will look back on it with plenty of satisfaction. Juan Ayuso and Mattias Skjelmose are still right up there among the big names, despite badly timed misfortune for the former. And with Mathias Vacek, who still sits inside the top ten, the team now has three riders in the upper reaches of the general classification.

Ayuso punctured just before the Aspin, at exactly the kind of moment a GC rider wants everything to go smoothly. “The team brought me back really well again, but of course it’s not ideal when you have to go completely into the red in the valley,” he said afterwards. “I think I did pay for that a little bit, but okay.”

The Spaniard eventually finished seventh on the stage, one place ahead of Skjelmose. “Honestly, I don’t think this was my best day,” Ayuso admitted. “But despite that, I held on and kept fighting for the podium. So yes, I think I can be satisfied, and I hope things will only get better from here.”

That Tadej Pogačar landed a blow did not come as a surprise anymore to his former teammate. “In the end, we already knew that Tadej is, well, superior. That is nothing new to anyone. And Jonas (Vingegaard, ed.) didn’t take a huge amount of time either, so we are still very close to the podium. We just have to keep going like this.”

“That’s why I’m also very satisfied,” Ayuso continued. “Normally, if you have a slightly worse day, it can cost you very dearly.” At the top of the Tourmalet, he still had some ground to make up on Paul Seixas and the riders around him, but he limited the damage well.

“If you miss the connection with that group, you lose an incredible amount of time just like that,” Ayuso explained. “So it was very important to bite the bullet for a moment and bridge across the valley with that group. And now? Now we simply keep fighting.” Ayuso is now fifth in the general classification, while Skjelmose also remains inside the top ten. For Lidl-Trek, the first real mountain test of this Tour ended with damage controlled, confidence intact and three riders still in the top ten.

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs - [email protected]