In Pogacar's absence, Ayuso steps up at Tirreno-Adriatico to take on Vingegaard

Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) wins stage 1 at Tirreno-Adriatico
Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) wins stage 1 at Tirreno-Adriatico (Image credit: Getty Images)

Juan Ayuso wasn’t invited to the pre-Tirreno-Adriatico big names photo opportunity but quickly showed his GC contender status and intentions for the seven-day race, and stole a march on his major rival Jonas Vinggaard, by winning the opening time trial along the Lido di Camaiore seafront.  

Ayuso beat a still convalescent Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) by one second and gained 22 seconds on the double Tour de France winner, 24 on Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) and even more on the other GC contender.

Stephen Farrand
Head of News

Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.