{"id":534189,"date":"2026-04-16T13:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T13:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/534189\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T13:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T13:59:09","slug":"juan-ayuso-to-miss-upcoming-ardennes-classics-through-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/534189\/","title":{"rendered":"Juan Ayuso to miss upcoming Ardennes Classics through illness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"elk-471be9f1-b9fb-4ed9-bb15-f21c43d6f544\">Lidl-Trek will be without <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/riders\/juan-ayuso\/\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/riders\/juan-ayuso\/\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/riders\/juan-ayuso\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Juan Ayuso<\/a> for the upcoming Ardennes Classics, with the Spaniard having recently suffered from a viral infection.<\/p>\n<p>Ayuso had been set to race La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne and <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/liege-bastogne-liege\/\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/liege-bastogne-liege\/\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/liege-bastogne-liege\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge<\/a>, but he&#8217;s not well enough to participate in either race, the team announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"elk-seasonal\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-471be9f1-b9fb-4ed9-bb15-f21c43d6f544-2\" class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\">&#8220;Unfortunately Juan Ayuso will miss the upcoming Ardennes Classics,&#8221; Lidl-Trek announced in a social media post on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Article continues below <\/p>\n<p>            You may like<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\">&#8220;Medical tests after Itzulia Basque Country showed a recent viral infection and the Spaniard is not yet ready to return to competition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\">&#8220;Feel better soon, Juan! We will miss you&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ayuso, who joined the team this year on a five-year deal, was set to make his debut at Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge this month. He has raced <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/la-fleche-wallonne\/\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/la-fleche-wallonne\/\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/la-fleche-wallonne\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne<\/a> twice in the past, not finishing either edition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Now, Lidl-Trek will likely look to other riders such as defending Amstel Gold Race champion Mattias Skjelmose and Giulio Ciccone for leadership across the trio of upcoming races. Rising star Thibau Nys is also out of the Ardennes after a recent knee surgery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"newsletter-form__strapline\">The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\">It remains to be seen when Ayuso will make his return to competition. The 23-year-old was last in action on stage 4 of Itzulia Basque Country. He made a slow start to the stage race, finishing 38th in the opening time trial, and later <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/pro-cycling\/teams-riders\/its-been-a-few-tough-days-juan-ayuso-abandons-itzulia-basque-country-before-chance-to-climb-out-of-large-gc-deficit\/\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/pro-cycling\/teams-riders\/its-been-a-few-tough-days-juan-ayuso-abandons-itzulia-basque-country-before-chance-to-climb-out-of-large-gc-deficit\/\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/pro-cycling\/teams-riders\/its-been-a-few-tough-days-juan-ayuso-abandons-itzulia-basque-country-before-chance-to-climb-out-of-large-gc-deficit\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">withdrew from the race after suffering from stomach issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Ayuso started his 2026 campaign with a strong outing at the Volta ao Algarve, winning the final stage at the Alto do Malh\u00e3o en route to the overall victory ahead of Paul Seixas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Since then, he&#8217;s fallen victim to bad luck, <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/pro-cycling\/teams-riders\/heavy-crash-leaves-paris-nice-leader-juan-ayuso-in-major-difficulties\/\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/pro-cycling\/teams-riders\/heavy-crash-leaves-paris-nice-leader-juan-ayuso-in-major-difficulties\/\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/pro-cycling\/teams-riders\/heavy-crash-leaves-paris-nice-leader-juan-ayuso-in-major-difficulties\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">crashing out of Paris-Nice on stage 4 while in the race lead<\/a> and abandoning Itzulia Basque Country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Ayuso&#8217;s main season goal is set to come in the summer, where he&#8217;ll co-lead Lidl-Trek at the Tour de France alongside Skjelmose.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Unfortunately Juan Ayuso will miss the upcoming Ardennes Classics. Medical tests after Itzulia Basque Country showed a recent viral infection and the Spaniard is not yet ready to return to competition \ud83d\ude22 Feel better soon, Juan! We will miss you \ud83e\udef6 pic.twitter.com\/EfkaIYwmt7<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cantworkitout\/status\/2044687318611611932\" data-url=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cantworkitout\/status\/2044687318611611932\" target=\"_blank\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">April 16, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lidl-Trek will be without Juan Ayuso for the upcoming Ardennes Classics, with the Spaniard having recently suffered from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-534189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}