The Ineos Grenadiers newcomers also impressed on stage 5 of the Volta ao Algarve, with Kévin Vauquelin on the attack late in the day and Oscar Onley climbing to a close second.
Cor Vos
Juan Ayuso made his debut for Lidl-Trek at the Volta ao Algarve this week, a race that saw the young Spaniard come face to face with his former squad UAE Team Emirates-XRG and home favourite João Almeida in the battle for the overall title. This was the first time the pair had met as rivals since the 2021 Tour de Luxembourg when Almeida won the race for Deceuninck-QuickStep, before joining Ayuso at UAE a few months later and sharing a team bus ever since. In this highly-anticipated first duel as two fully-fledged leaders, it was Ayuso who emerged triumphant with stage 5 victory the cherry on top of a very good week in Portugal.
It was a dramatic finale, and though Ayuso took top billing by the end of the day, there was plenty to see in the last hour especially as a number of teams sought to influence the outcome, with five riders within a minute – give or take a second – of Ayuso’s yellow jersey.
Throughout stage 5, Ayuso was always either following or being followed by 19-year-old Seixas who’d snatched stage 2 from the Spaniard earlier in the race.
The final stage took place over just shy of 150 km, nearly all of them lumpy, though with only two classified climbs on the course, taken twice each in the last 60 km. The relatively short and steep nature of the climbs made them perfect launchpads for long-range attacks, and both Ineos Grenadiers and Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe took advantage of their numbers in the GC top 10 to put pressure on Lidl-Trek and UAE.
“From the start to the end, it was a very stressful and tense day, right from the beginning,” Ayuso said after the stage, explaining that vigilance was key from the start with large breakaways trying to escape the bunch. “I’m super proud of how the team raced all day. They put us under pressure from the start. There were very strong teams, Ineos and Red Bull, trying to make their moves, and trying to always have guys out front to put us under pressure. Thanks to my teammates today, we controlled it perfectly.”
Hours after the searing start, the drama resumed about 40 km from the finish on the first ascent of the Alto de Malhão (2.6 km at 9%), four survivors from the breakaway still about 90 seconds up the road. Almeida put his rivals to the test on the steepest pitches between 10 and 16%, but he was marked closely by Ayuso and stage 2 winner, French wunderkind Paul Seixas.
Almeida on the move on the first ascent of the Alto de Malhão, closely marked by former teammate Ayuso and French teenager Seixas.
A few hundred metres later, after Ineos had taken control, Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) launched out of the wheels and into fresh air, prompting a reaction by Kévin Vauquelin (Ineos Grenadiers).
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