They escorted Belgian Remco Evenepoel to the podium of the 2022 Vuelta. Now they want more and they dream of grabbing first place, but they also know the difficulty involved in doing so, they are the clearest Spanish candidates to fight from Barcelona for the 78th Tour of Spain: Enric Mas and Juan Ayuso.
In almost identical words, both agree to the extraordinary degree that the Spanish race will have from the starting line, with up to five major winners to their credit who will wear their bib starting this Saturday in search of ‘la roja’, a jersey that has not been conquered by a national cyclist since Alberto Contador did so in 2014 with the final in Santiago.
The three names that lost hands in their respective appearances were Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard, from Jumbo-Visma, and Remco Evenepoel, from Soudal-Quick Step, but Ineos-Grenadiers’ Egan Bernal was also victorious in a large. and Geraint Thomas.
“It will be very difficult, but to achieve that we train and run“, affirmed Ayuso in the appearance of the UAE Emirates, while Mas, in Movistar, settled: “There are very important rivals, but you cannot think that they are the winners of the Tour and Giro, otherwise we will go wrong”.
Although they had reached a great level, neither Ayuso nor Mas considered that they had come at the perfect time, they do it in all the works done but have no feeling that they can say it is “optimal”. Bad situations crossed his path in recent weeks in the form of falls that prevented him from doing so, both for the Spanish and for the Catalan based in Jávea.
Enric Mas (Artà, 1995) acknowledged that he was forced to start his career “covered” and his first goal is to “go every day” because the fall that forced him to leave the Tour in the first stage in Bilbao with only 150 kilometers in his legs “is not serious, but it is difficult for me to return to my level.”
“Let’s see how I respond to a three-week race. I hope the body responds in the best possible way“, said the Mallorcan who has already set foot on the second stage of the Vuelta on three occasions (2018, 2021 and 2022).
One of the factors that may be in his favor is the little competition he has accumulated and although since the last Tour he has not put up a number again, he trusts “to be in good shape” after a three-week high cycle which even led him to give up competing in the Vuelta a Burgos.
“I have trained a lot and it is good. I didn’t go to Burgos, so I hope to get to the Vuelta sooner than the opponents. You have to enjoy this Vuelta”, he explained.
Juan Ayuso (Barcelona, 2002) was part of the youngest sextet to start the Vuelta at the age of 20 although he was the only one to complete it for 21 years. He met them on the penultimate day with a debate on the penultimate stage, a true nonsense with 207.8 kilometers between Manzanares el Real and Guadarrama and his dream was to celebrate it in style.
“By power, I hope that if I can aspire to win. It’s obviously going to be the best and it’s what I’ve always dreamed of and after last year’s podium it makes me dream a little higher,” said Ayuso.
After turning the page on the physical and mental problems that marked his start to the year, he explained that “The preparation would have been almost perfect if I didn’t have the two falls that I had. I don’t have any trouble or any pain,” he said.
Ayuso and Mas will be joined in the peloton by another 26 national cyclistswhich however will not be the most because France with 30 representatives is the one that presents the most cyclists.
The three Spanish teams, Movistar in its own right, and Burgos-BH and Caja Rural-Seguros RGA by invitationshow five national cyclists in their first eight, followed by Astana and Cofidis with three each, UAE Emirates and Ineos-Grenadiers with two each, and Lidl-Trek, Arkea and Bahrain with one each formation.
In that group of 28 are the last two winners of a stage in the 2022 Vuelta, the Catalan Marc Soler and the Manchego Jesús Herrada.
Although many of them will start with a very clear role in their formations from a kilometer and it will not be easy for them to escape the anonymity of the peloton, others will look for the opportunity to show off, let their himself to see and, if possible, make the surprise pop.
Source: La Verdad
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