Juan Ayuso fended off Primož Roglič by the barest minimum possible to claim both stage win and lead in the Volta a Catalunya on Wednesday, but given the narrowness of his success, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG racer was logically very cautious about his chances of overall victory in Sunday in Barcelona.
After 218 kilometres and more than 5,000 metres of vertical climbing, the Volta's opening high mountain stage at La Molina was decided by just a few millimetres difference in a two-up duel between the main pre-race favourites.
However, given the main GC battle only really erupted in the final kilometre when Roglič attacked, at the finish line just two seconds separated the stage leaders from third-placed Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep), and a big group of 21 favourites was only another four seconds back. Overall, nearly 30 riders are still within a minute at the top of the classification.
Yet for all its slightness, Ayuso's advantage is undeniable. As the 22-year-old pointed out afterwards, the Volta overall has often been decided by the barest minimum, so any opportunity to gain time is always critical and may prove decisive. Meanwhile, after the first of three big mountain stages - and the next is just 24 hours distant - the Volta GC remains poised on a knife-edge.
"I knew that in La Molina these kinds of finales can play out like that," Ayuso, well wrapped-up against the cold as the early evening temperatures began to plummet at the Catalan ski station, told reporters afterwards.
"The climb has various points where you can catch your breath and it can be very windy, so that's why I didn't want to move any sooner, I had to wait to make my move.
"Of course the GC is the main goal, but it's also important to win stages, because these come with bonus seconds and often this race has all been decided by less than 10 seconds."
Ayuso agreed that it had been a fair but tough sprint, and after being badly placed in the crucial final corner, he was both grateful to Roglič for not closing him in and relieved to have taken a victory where the Slovenian was fast cutting down on his advantage when the two crossed the line.
"The final here is very tricky, because you have the left turn at just 150 metres to go. I knew had to get the last turn first and I didn't, so already when I took the turn I knew I had to try because I had no time to lose," he said.
"I was trying to come up on the outside, but Primoz behaved like a champion because another rival might have shut me in or even made me crash and he made it a fair sprint, so chapeau to him. Then we had to go to the line and I'm glad I could beat him. I managed to win against a great rival."
Ayuso said he had both extra motivation to fight for his win, his fifth of the season, and a special victory dedication to make - to his aunt, who died last week.
"That was the only thing I was thinking about in the last kilometre: that I needed to win come what may, so this of course goes out to her. It's a nice emotion after a very difficult few days."
The 22-year-old's latest win represents another chapter in a season where all the cards are falling his way, with success in the Faun Drome Classic, Trofeo Laigueglia and Tirreno-Adriatico followed by fresh triumphs on home soil. All this, too, on a day when UAE also won in Belgium in a crash-marred Classic Brugge-De Panne with Juan Sebastian Molano.
However, the main challenges of the Volta a Catalunya are only just beginning, Ayuso recognised, and as he said, the race is far from over. Thursday is another summit finish, at Montserrat, and then the toughest stage of all awaits on Saturday in the mountains of central Catalunya.
"It's important, this is the first battle of week, " he said, "but we still have two very hard mountain days left and also there's the last stage, you never know what can happen there. The job is still not finished."
