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It feels like an age ago since Juan Ayuso promised a journalist at the Tour de France that if Spain beat France in the World Cup he would wear his country's football jersey to the sign-on podium - but while Spain went on to win the Cup overall, Ayuso's dream of a top finish in the Tour now looks increasingly distant.
Following his difficult ascent of the Plateau de Solaison, where only the support from teammate Quinn Simmons stopped him from losing more than two minutes to stage winner Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Ayuso was once again soundly beaten by the Belgian 48 hours later.
On Tuesday's stage 16 individual time trial, Ayuso was a far cry from the rider who has beaten specialists like Filippo Ganna (Netcompany Ineos) and even Evenepoel, albeit back in 2023, in time trials. By the end of the stage, Ayuso had ceded 2:22 to Evenepoel, finishing in 15th place, after losing ground in every checkpoint.
At the finish, Ayuso quickly threaded his way through the waiting lines of journalists to a team van, where an overhead awning and some tape afforded a space so he and teammate Skjelmose - who had turned in an excellent time trial, finishing third - could warm down on their bikes.
The contrast between the two, just metres apart as they warmed down, spoke volumes about their respective states of morale. Ayuso, respectful of his media duties even in defeat, spoke to journalists lining the far side of the flimsy barrier, but limited his questions to barely a minute. Skjelmose, despite his head being partly covered with a towel to try to stay cool, was in a much more talkative mood as he explained his success at the other end of the very limited space.
"Evidently it has been bad, bad, I've not seen the differences yet, but I think it is a lot," Ayuso told journalists.
"You can't miss when you're going for the podium, and now I've missed on two days, so it's tough," he said. "I was not feeling well, and I was really off my level, but that happens sometimes."
The one consolation for the Spaniard was that he has moved up a spot to fifth on GC following Florian Lipowitz's mid-TT crash, which forced the German to abandon. However, a podium is now a long shot, since third-placed Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) is 2:31 clear of Ayuso, who has now ceded a colossal nine minutes to race leader Tadej Pogačar.
The race is far from over, and Ayuso refused to throw in the towel completely. As he pointed out, the double ascent of Alpe d'Huez still awaits, and that may yet be a chance for him to turn the tables. Furthermore, as Ayuso pointed out, given what had happened to both Jonas Vingegaard and Lipowitz, nothing can ever be taken for granted in cycling.
"There are two hard days and two days - a lot of things can happen, as unfortunately we saw with Jonas and also today with Florian, everything can change in a second.
"So we just have to stay focused and keep on trying."
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