Monstrous Vacek saved Ayuso and Lidl-Trek after a setback with Skjelmose: 'On a whole other level'

The team time trial that opened the 2026 the Tour de France turned into a battle between the powerhouses Visma | Lease a Bike, Netcompany INEOS, and UAE Emirates-XRG. But Lidl-Trek also put up a valiant fight in the race against the clock. Team leaders Juan Ayuso looked back with satisfaction.

With Jonas Vingegaard in yellow and Tadej Pogacar 11 seconds behind in third place, Ayuso is fourth in the general classification after the first day. The 23-year-old Spaniard didn’t have an ideal preparation for the Tour de France, but he successfully capped off a strong time trial for Lidl-Trek.

"I gave it my all right up to the finish," Ayuso told Eurosport immediately after crossing the finish line. Could she have done better, given she finished 16 seconds behind Vingegaard? “Mattias (Skjelmose, ed.) had a flat tire, and we also lost Quinn (Simmons, ed.); with those two, we could have done even better. We just didn’t have any luck.”

"In the end, we beat ourselves. Mathias Vacek was really in a league of his own today; I even had trouble keeping up with him—truly impressive. We had some bad luck with Skjelmose, one of the best riders for this kind of race. We were confident we’d win, but shit happens."

Ayuso was invited onto the podium to receive the white youth jersey. “But we would have preferred yellow,” he said candidly. “We had to ride as a group of five for a long time on the flat, and given the conditions, we rode the best time trial we could. Thanks to my teammates, I gained time on many of my competitors.”

As team manager, Steven de Jongh was also disappointed by Skjelmose dropping early, but said: "They handled it well. We lost time in the final, because without Mattias we weren't as fast as hoped. That's a shame, but we still finished at the front and with Juan in the white jersey, it's a nice ending."

"I still have to look at the general classification, but the fact that we are only 16 seconds behind Visma | Lease a Bike and 4 behind UAE Emirates-XRG shows that we did a very good team time trial. We had expected to be good, although the setback was unfortunate."