Ayuso: “This victory is pure happiness, I don’t think I will ever forget it”

The Spanish Juan Ayuso (UAE) ensured that, after achieving this Sunday at Getxo Circuit his first victory as a professional runner, what he feels “is pure happiness” after debuting his elite record with a victory that he does not think he will “forget”.

“It’s my first victory as a professional and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. It’s just pure happiness and now to enjoy it with my family,” he said smiling at the finish line unstoppable. acknowledged that he “took great pains” to hunt down the two fugitives on the plains, Wilco Kelderman and Andrea Piccolowhich he was unable to follow in Vivero, the penultimate port of the day, because he had punctured earlier.

“I had a puncture on the penultimate climb and two riders lost their cut. I had to chase, I changed bikes and the team helped me with everything. They closed the gap and on the last climb I knew I had it go to butt from below to try to catch and that’s how it was”, Ayuso (Barcelona, ​​​​09-16-2002) showed gratitude to the team for their work.

“I did the last climb at full throttle, like a time trial, because two runners were ahead and I knew I had to try to catch it because if I didn’t it would cost me a lot on the flat. I wasn’t catch up on the climb and I had to suffer a lot to reach them and I’m happy that I achieved it”, summed up the brilliant winner of the Giro d’Italia under-23 in 2021 the transcendent part of the race”.

On how he tackled the finish line uphill, he explained that “it was simply giving everything and leaving alive”. “And it happened”, he congratulated himself on a decisive sprint in which, first, he won the position from the Frenchman Valentin Ferron, then he overcame Kelderman, the first to launch the arrival, and finally endured in the final counterattack. of the Italian Andrea Piccolo , who finished second ahead of the Dutch and the French.