Poor Juan Ayuso: from throwing snowballs and folding paper airplanes to a crumpled figure with a bowl of pasta

Up until the Giro, 2025 had been smooth sailing for Ayuso. After revamping his training entirely, he won the Faun Drome Classic and Trofeo Laigueglia, dominated Tirreno-Adriatico with a stage and overall win, and was beaten by Primoz Roglic only on the final day of the Tour of Catalonia. He followed it up with a high-altitude training camp with teammates and many solo sessions. “I train alone 95% of the time because I think it makes me better,” he explained.

Ayuso is now in his fourth full year in the WorldTour and has emerged as a well-spoken, likable, and incredibly gifted rider. One with a good sense of humor too, as shown by a video during his April training camp. While he occasionally shared the occasional photo or video of snow-covered mountain peaks, it was a video of a snowball fight with Igor Arrieta that had fans laughing.

Ayuso has always come across as open and honest, even though he’s had his fair share of pressure as a young talent on the world’s biggest cycling team. In 2023, he struggled for months with a tendon injury that kept him out for half a year. And in 2024, he faced a wave of criticism after pulling out of the Tour de France due to COVID, many accused him of quitting too easily, especially since he appeared to avoid doing domestique work for Tadej Pogacar. Later that same year, he was passed over for selection in the Vuelta.

Ayuso was touted as a top contender in this year’s Giro after a brilliant spring, but his debut in Italy's grand tour was carefree for exactly half a day. He crashed on stage 1, and was still feeling the effects during the time trial on stage 2, one of his strongest weapons. Instead of striking a major early blow to Primoz Roglic, Ayuso himself lost time to the Red Bull-Slovenian. That was the beginning of a Giro where he never fully came into the spotlight.

And yet, things briefly looked up. On stage 7, Ayuso claimed an impressive win, and the next day even gained a symbolic second in a flat sprint, seemingly putting the opening weekend behind him. But heading into the gravel stage of Strade Bianche, there was a sense of unease. And sure enough, Ayuso crashed again. He did manage to gain time on Roglic, but he also came away with a painful knee wound, a souvenir from the brutal white roads of Tuscany.

On the rest day after the Siena stage, Ayuso was still his usual honest self. Yes, the pain was there, but he didn’t believe it would affect his performance in the rest of the Giro. In fact, he seemed to welcome the shift in attention, most of the media questions that day were directed at Isaac Del Toro, who had taken the pink jersey with a bold move on stage 9. While the 21-year-old Mexican calmly answered reporters, Ayuso was seen in the background folding paper airplanes on camera.

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As if devil himself had it in for him, another time trial was scheduled right after Ayuso’s crash. Once again, he couldn’t go all out. “It hurt quite a bit,” he admitted, with three stitches in his knee. To make things worse, all the GC contenders had to ride in the rain, great for light, explosive climbers hoping to minimize losses, but awful for riders like Ayuso who had planned to make up time in the time trial. But Ayuso’s struggles barely made headlines anymore, Del Toro was stealing the show.

Originally meant to be Ayuso’s super-domestique, Del Toro had avoided the GC crash in the gravel stage and boldly claimed the pink jersey. It gave him wings. Through the second week, he was a constant presence, chasing bonus seconds, surging at punchy finishes, and marking attacks from the peloton. Meanwhile, Ayuso slipped down the pecking order, forced to wait for a weak moment from his close friend and teammate. To make matters worse, his knee hadn’t healed properly, the stitches bursted open during the time trial.

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On the third rest day, UAE confidently declared that the whole team was ready for the final week. Del Toro, wearing the pink jersey, was the leader, but Ayuso was sitting in third place, just 1:26 behind. His favorite terrain lay ahead, and the brutally honest final week of the Giro had begun. But it was Ayuso’s legs that were honest. His knee was acting up, he handed his gloves to the team car, losing sight of the peloton in the process, grabbed a painkiller, and when the race truly kicked off, he cracked.

And just like that, the Giro dream ended before it had ever really begun. Or more precisely: it ended in the back seat of a team car. Ayuso’s entire family had shown up on Tuesday, no doubt a date carefully picked in the calendar with hopes their hero would make a move here. Instead, they had to console him. His parents, his girlfriend, and even his little dog Trufa were there. While the fallen leader quietly ate a bowl of pasta, his father put an arm around him, and a lick from Trufa brought out a small smile. But a smile through gritted teeth...

Because while it said everything about Ayuso the person and the athlete that he continued on stage 17, he was barely able to hang on to the gruppetto. To make matters worse, he was stung by a bee, right through his helmet, and appeared before stage 18 in the mixed zone with a swollen cheek. He was down to one functioning knee and one working eye. Time to stop, this Giro simply wasn’t meant to be for Juan Ayuso in 2025.

Bram van der Ploeg (Twitter: @BvdPloegg | email: [email protected])