Juan Ayuso will ride in Lidl-Trek colours in 2026. Photo courtesy of SWpix.
At the European Championships in Drôme-Ardèche last week, Juan Ayuso’s protracted farewell with UAE Team Emirates-XRG reached a subtle yet meaningful point. The road race marked his final appearance on the team’s Colnago bike, while he also arrived in France to return one of his time trial machines to the UAE team staff.
After five years with the team, the Spaniard had accumulated a considerable amount of UAE-branded equipment and gear, and the Euros offered a chance to hasten the gradual separation between the rider and the squad, although this was a far calmer episode than the one that erupted during the Vuelta a España, when, within a few days, Ayuso became the centre of media attention after his team publicly announced he would be free to leave at the end of the season.
From Drôme-Ardèche until the end of the calendar year, more pieces of kit will be returned to the UAE service course, and with his season now finished, Ayuso can begin the process of reconstructing his career at Lidl-Trek after signing a five-year deal with the American team.
The evening before the Euro road race, in which Ayuso played a significant role before finishing in sixth place, we called the 23-year-old. There was much to discuss, from his relationship with his soon-to-be ex-teammates and managers to why he had shifted from one long-term contract to another, and, of course, where things had gone wrong at UAE and why he now aimed to rebuild his career at Lidl-Trek as both a GC leader and a loyal teammate.
“I’m super excited. The goal that I had for quite some time has become a reality. And I’m not just saying this because it’s happened, but Lidl-Trek was a team I wanted to ride for, and they also wanted me the most. It’s all aligned, and I think that I’ll fit perfectly in the team. I’m really looking forward to it,” Ayuso opens with.