Juan Ayuso

Juan Ayuso Pesquera (born 16 September 2002) is a Spanish road cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam.

Early years
Ayuso started cycling when he was seven or eight years old, and looked up to Alberto Contador.

In 2017, he won the gold medal in the road race and the time trial at the Spanish Cadet Road Championships (15 to 16 years old), and defended his time trial title the following year. Moving up to the junior category, he immediately made an impact, winning the national junior road race title in 2019, and both the road race and time trial the following year. In 2020, he dominated the national junior racing circuit, winning the Vuelta al Besaya in addition to several other stage races.

Under-23 (2021)
In 2021, Ayuso joined UCI Continental team, planning to compete at the under-23 level for a year before joining UCI WorldTeam the following year. He quickly found success at this level, winning the overall title of the Giro Ciclistico d'Italia, the under-23 edition of the Giro d'Italia as well as the Giro del Belvedere and Trofeo Piva one-day races. Only several days after his win at the Giro Ciclistico d'Italia, he joined early, on an initial contract lasting through 2025.



UAE Team Emirates (2021–)
Ayuso officially joined on 15 June 2021. On 25 July in his third race with the team, he placed second in the Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia behind Luis León Sánchez. He then returned to the under-23 stage to race the Tour de l'Avenir, where he was considered the top favorite to win. However, he abandoned the race on stage four after crashing. He then competed in the road race at the UEC European Under-23 Road Championships, where he won the bronze medal in a seven-man sprint.

Ayuso showed strong form at the start of the 2022 season, with a fourth-place finish at the La Drôme Classic, then second in the Trofeo Laigueglia, finishing between his teammates Jan Polanc and Alessandro Covi. He then competed in the Volta a Catalunya, his first UCI World Tour stage race, where he finished fifth overall. At the beginning of May, he held second place in the Tour de Romandie going into the final time trial, where he lost time and fell to fourth place. However, he still took home the young rider classification award. He took his first professional victory in the Circuito de Getxo at the end of July in a four-man sprint. He was then selected for his first Grand Tour: the Vuelta a España, where he was the youngest rider in the race. He showed promise for the general classification early on, finishing fourth in the first mountain stage, 55 seconds behind the winner Jay Vine. This put him in fifth place overall. Ultimately, he managed to move up to third by the end of the race, behind Remco Evenepoel and Enric Mas. With this result five days before his 20th birthday, he became the second youngest rider in history to finish on the podium of a Grand Tour, behind Henri Cornet, the winner of the 1904 Tour de France.

Ayuso had a slow start to the 2023 season due to tendinitis in his right Achilles, and did not make his debut until the Tour de Romandie in April. He took the race lead after winning the stage three time trial, but fell back to 16th the following day. His next race was the Tour de Suisse. After having been in difficulty the stage before, he won the fifth stage solo on the day marred by the death of Gino Mäder. He then won the time trial on the eighth and final day, ultimately finishing second overall, nine seconds behind winner Mattias Skjelmose. In August, he entered his second Vuelta a España, where he took third-place finishes in stages three and eight, and finished fourth overall, winning the young rider classification in the process.

In February 2024, he won the Ardèche Classic in a four-way sprint ahead of Romain Grégoire, Mattias Skjelmose and Felix Gall. The following month, he competed in Tirreno–Adriatico, where he won the opening time trial. However, he lost the race lead to Jonas Vingegaard, taking home second. In April, he took part in the Tour of the Basque Country, which saw several of the main favorites abandon following a large crash during the fourth stage. Sitting in third overall going into the final stage, Ayuso was able to drop race leader Mattias Skjelmose on the last climb, securing the overall victory by a margin of 42 seconds to compatriot Carlos Rodríguez. This marked Ayuso's first major stage race win.

Major results

 * 2019
 * National Junior Road Championships
 * 1st MaillotEspaña.svg Road race
 * 3rd Time trial
 * 1st Stage 2 Bizkaiko Itzulia
 * 2nd VII Trofeo Victor Cabedo
 * 3rd Gipuzkoa Klasika
 * 5th Overall Trophée Centre Morbihan


 * 2020
 * National Junior Road Championships
 * 1st MaillotEspaña.svg Road race
 * 1st MaillotEspaña.svg Time trial
 * 1st Jersey yellow.svg Overall Vuelta al Besaya
 * 1st Jersey black.svg Points classification
 * 1st Stages 1, 2 & 3
 * 1st Jersey yellow.svg Overall Vuelta a Talavera Junior
 * 1st Stages 1, 2, 3 (ITT) & 4
 * 1st Jersey yellow.svg Overall Vuelta a la Subbética
 * 1st Stages 1, 2 & 3
 * 1st Jersey yellow.svg Overall Circuito del Guadiana Junior
 * 1st Stages 1 & 2 (ITT)
 * 1st Jersey yellow.svg Overall Trofeo Victor Cabedo
 * 1st Stages 4 & 5
 * 1st Gipuzkoa Klasika
 * UEC European Junior Road Championships
 * 5th Time trial
 * 7th Road race


 * 2021
 * 1st Jersey pink.svg Overall Giro Ciclistico d'Italia
 * 1st Jersey red.svg Points classification
 * 1st Jersey green.svg Mountains classification
 * 1st Jersey white.svg Young rider classification
 * 1st Stages 2, 5 & 7
 * 1st Jersey yellow.svg Overall Giro di Romagna
 * 1st Jersey green.svg Mountains classification
 * 1st Stages 2 & 3
 * 1st Trofeo Piva
 * 1st Giro del Belvedere
 * 2nd Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia
 * 3rd Bronze medal europe.svg Road race, UEC European Under-23 Road Championships


 * 2022 (1 pro win)
 * 1st Circuito de Getxo
 * 2nd Trofeo Laigueglia
 * 3rd Overall Vuelta a España
 * 4th Road race, National Road Championships
 * 4th Overall Tour de Romandie
 * 1st Jersey white.svg Young rider classification
 * 4th La Drôme Classic
 * 4th Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia
 * 5th Overall Volta a Catalunya


 * 2023 (3)
 * 1st Stage 3 (ITT) Tour de Romandie
 * National Road Championships
 * 2nd Road race
 * 4th Time trial
 * 2nd Overall Tour de Suisse
 * 1st Stages 5 & 8 (ITT)
 * 3rd Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia
 * 4th Overall Vuelta a España
 * 1st Jersey white.svg Young rider classification


 * 2024 (3)
 * 1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
 * 1st Young rider classification
 * 1st Faun-Ardèche Classic
 * 2nd Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
 * 1st Young rider classification
 * 1st Stage 1 (ITT)
 * 2nd La Drôme Classic
 * 3rd Trofeo Laigueglia
 * 5th Overall Tour de Romandie

General classification results timeline
Sources: