Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) has expressed regret over what he believes was a miscalculated attack on the slopes of the Grand Colombier that cost him the stage 7 victory at Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes on Saturday.
The Spaniard attacked 6.7km from the top of the final ascent, but was caught and then distanced by eventual stage winner Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), leaving Ayuso to settle for second place 24 seconds behind.
“I’m disappointed. I think I went too far out, too early, and I threw away the win. My teammates deserved it today,” Auyso said in a post-race interview.
The 133.6km race that started in La Bridoire and finished at the top of the Grand Colombier was another challenging affair for the peloton, beginning with a partially neutralised descent off the category-2 Côte de Saint-Maurice-de-Rotherens to avoid potential crashes on the gravel sections.
The race resumed at the 30-kilometre mark, roughly the spot where Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) crashed and found himself four minutes down and in a massive chase to reconnect with his rivals before the final ascent.
“It was a really hard day. The organisers did a good job in neutralising; it was quite dangerous, so we have to praise them for thinking about us because for sure there would have been crashes if not,” Ayuso said.
Although 10 riders formed a breakaway, including Ayuso’s teammate and stage 4 winner Quinn Simmons, he explained that teams Visma-Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates-XRG maintained a steady pace to manage the time gap.
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Once caught, Simmons remained at the front of what was left of the field with his Lidl-Trek squad, setting up Auyso and Mattias Skjelmose for the final two climbs over the Col de Richemond and into the base of the Grand Colombier.
Skjelmose appeared to struggle with the pace on the lower slopes of the final ascent, while Ayuso made his initial attack 6.7km from the top.
Asked why he chose that moment to surge, he said, “It was stupid. There, the pace was not super hard; it was the hardest [steepest] part, and I thought that if I stayed on the wheel, I wasn’t going to save much. At the end, you do. I think I just threw away the victory.”
Behind Ayuso, and with 4.5km remaining, Del Toro leaped out of a select chase group that included Matteo Jorgenson and Ben Tullet (Visma-Lease a Bike), Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), and Cian Uijtdebroeks (Movistar).
Overall leader Luke Tuckwell (Red Bull-Bora -Hansgrohe) and Seixas, who briefly regained contact, struggled to stay with the group.
Del Toro eventually made the catch with 1.7km to go, and then surged again on his way to the stage 7 victory, and Ayuso with nothing left in response.
“It’s hard because I did have the legs today,” Ayuso said. “My team rode amazingly, put me where I had to be and controlled all day.”
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