In Torricella Sicura on Friday morning, Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) had high aims and ambitions for stage 5 of Tirreno-Adriatico. The Spaniard hoped that he could go toe to toe with Jonas Vingegaard on the first mountain stage and then challenge for overall victory on Saturday's Monte Petrano summit finish.
“If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. To have these opportunities to race against the best riders in the world is very nice and motivating,” Ayuso told Cyclingnews at the start.
Afterwards, Ayuso was defeated but not broken, accepting that Vingegaard is still a level above him. The Spaniard, winner of the opening time trial, could do little to stop Vingegaard from stamping his authority on the race here.
“When I get home, I just have to train hard and work more. I’ve still got a lot of work to do if I want to be on his level,” Ayuso admitted to Cyclingnews.
“I didn’t feel my best today, in fact I suffered quite a bit. But that’s cycling, you have to accept it.
“I’m not saying I’d have been able to follow Vingegaard when he attacked but I’d maybe be in between somewhere. I just didn’t have it today. It is what it is.”
Ayuso and everyone in the peloton could only watch and admire as Visma-Lease a Bike executed a carefully planned stage strategy.
Dylan van Baarle and Steven Kruijswijk kept the early break in check in the rolling opening 100km. Then Attila Valter set a high pace on the opening kilometres of the San Giacomo climb.
Ben Tulett took over midway up the climb, raising the pace even more and then Vingegaard attacked, with Cian Uijtdebroeks covering his wheel and then marking his rivals as the Dane powered away for a 29km solo ride to victory.
Ayuso had help from Isaac del Toro, who caught up to the chase group and gave his all, but Vingegaard was soon a minute ahead. Ayuso won the sprint for second to take six bonus seconds, but he lost a total of 1:16 to Vinegaard, who now leads him in the overall classification by 54 seconds.
“His team did a perfect job. Before his attack, Ben Tulett set a speed that hardly anybody could match and so when Jonas attacked, it was impossible to go with him,” Ayuso admitted.
“Isaac got back on and helped me. He was perhaps the second strongest rider of the race after Vingegaard, but there wasn’t much we could do against a Vingegaard like that.”
Ayuso can still take something tangible from this race. He is second overall, 26 seconds ahead of Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) and already thinking of trying to win Saturday’s mountaintop finish to Monte Petrano.
“It’s complicated now, he’s clearly on form,” Ayuso said. “Saturday’s stage is another hard day in the mountains and if Jonas has the same legs, it’ll almost be impossible to do something. But we’ll try to go for the stage win and perhaps Isaac Del Toro can finish on the podium too.”
