One of Juan Ayuso's teammates has come to his defence on social media, defending the Spaniard's withdrawal from Itzulia Basque Country after he was accused of not wanting to help his fellow Lidl-Trek riders.
Having returned to racing for the first time since his heavy crash at Paris-Nice, Ayuso quickly fell away in the general classification race and then pulled out due to ongoing stomach issues during the fourth stage.
Under the team's post on X confirming that he had been forced to abandon, one fan wrote: "There's always something when it comes to helping a teammate, right? I want to believe it, but even if some think otherwise, I don't think he's capable of helping teammates in return. So okay, maybe he has excuses every time…"
In direct response, French Lidl-Trek rider Julien Bernard said the suggestion that Ayuso didn't want to ride for his teammates was nonsense, and that it was their top rider on GC, Mattias Skjelmose, who actually told Ayuso not to push past his limit.
"So tired of reading this kind of thing – it's been two days that they're trying their best to help us, for better or worse," said Bernard on X.
"It's Skjelmose who took the radio today to tell him not to push his body and to think about the Ardennes. Don't invent stories where there aren't any."
Ayuso had made a flying start to time on his new team in 2026, winning a close-fought edition of the Volta ao Algarve ahead of current Itzulia Basque Country leader, Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), but bad luck has followed him ever since.
He crashed out of the brutally wet fourth stage of Paris-Nice, having been leading the race, and this latest stomach issue left him well away from his best and unfortunately pushed him out of his third race of the season.
"The second stage was super tough and I wasn't feeling very well. On top of that, I had pretty bad stomach problems yesterday," explained to CyclingProNet at the start of stage 4.
"I think everything is adding up a bit. I think yesterday I rode faster to the bus after the finish to try and go to the bathroom than during the stage itself. It comes like this and you have to go through it."
Ayuso's next races are supposed to come at the Ardennes Classics, where he is currently down to race La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège alongside Skjelmose and challenge the likes of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).
