After so much tragedy, great joy. After many falls, I move on to attacks, strategy and victory. In the midst of all that ugliness, a true beauty. Instead of looking at the ambulances and hospitals, the news was on the podium. After many long faces, came the smile of two kids, one from Alicante and one from Granada, 21 and 23 years old, respectively, who confirmed that they can rub shoulders with the greats of cycling. One is Juan Ayuso (UAE), who won the Itzulia in a big way, his first round of one-week stages. The other is Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos), who won the stage and climbed to second place after collaborating with the future winner on the last climb towards Eibar.
First and second. In the queen stage and in the final general. The two great Spanish promises were confirmed as a reality with a memorable performance in the decisive stage. Yes, Vingegaard, Roglic, Evenepoel and even Landa were missing. But these abandonments cannot tarnish the victory in a day of high cycling in which the man from Alicante, who was third at the start, destroyed Skjelmose, the leader.
The curse of Itzulia in 2024 ended with an extraordinary sixth stage, the queen, which crowned Juan Ayuso. It was the reconciliation of a career that usually shines and that had gone out, darkened, with so many accidents and dull stages. Ayuso, supported by a great team tactic with two luxury teammates like Arrieta and Marc Soler, put the light on and illuminated the race.
Twice he attacked and twice he picked up the Dane from Lidl. First in Izua, where Carlos Rodríguez tried to follow him and couldn’t. Although on the descent, there was regrouping. The key climb was in Urkaregui, the last ascent of the day, 16.8 from the finish line. He stood up and left. So he did accompany Rodríguez.
They both collaborated. They were both interested. One was sentencing the race. The other, a great descender like he demonstrated in the 2023 Tour in the Joux Plane to win in Morzine, could get on the podium and stay the stage. That of Indurain and Chiapucci but among Spaniards. That’s how it went.
“How much?” he asked the motorcycle that accompanied them. With his thumb pointing backwards, he was asking the difference between them and Skjelmose, with whom he had an old score pending since last year’s Tour of Switzerland. And Ayuso could not help but smile when he was informed that it was more than 40 seconds with less than 5 kilometers left from Itzulia. He had it in his pocket.
At the finish line, Ayuso was greeted with the yellow jersey, the winner’s txapela, but also his mother and his dog, Trufa. The 10 bonus seconds awaited Rodríguez, with which he also passed Skjelmose and his first victory of 2024.
