'I just threw away a victory' - Juan Ayuso rues error on Grand Colombier
Juan Ayuso was left to rue his eagerness to go on the offensive after he placed second to his former teammate Isaac del Toro on the Grand Colombier on stage 7 of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
The Lidl-Trek rider attacked alone with a little under 7km remaining, quickly opening a gap of 20 seconds on a chasing group that featured Del Toro and Matteo Jorgenson. Ayuso looked a likely stage winner, but he was caught and passed with 1.7km to go by Del Toro, who had left his effort a little later.
Ayuso would crosse the line second on the stage, 24 seconds behind Del Toro. In the overall standings, he now lies fourth overall, 1:06 behind yellow jersey Luke Tuckwell (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and 17 seconds down on Del Toro.
“I’m just disappointed because I think that was obviously too far out, too early and I threw away the win,” Ayuso told CyclingPro.net of his attack. “My teammates deserved it today so I’m just disappointed.”
“Because I’m stupid"
The Spaniard reached for gallows humour when asked why he had decided to attack with so much of the hors categorie climb remaining.
“Because I’m stupid,” Ayuso smiled. “No, I mean, there the pace was not super hard and then it was the hardest part, so I thought ‘Okay, on the wheel I’m not going to save much,’ but at the end you do, and I think I just threw away a victory today.”
Paul Seixas’ early crash and fightback after falling four minutes behind was the story of the day, though the Frenchman would eventually concede 1:21 on the climb to the finish, leaving him 1:54 down in the overall standings with a day to go.
The race had been briefly neutralised shortly before Seixas’ crash due to the presence of gravel on the descent of the day’s third climb, the Côte de Saint-Maurice-de-Rotherens. His fall took place after the race resumed again after 30km.
“It was a really hard day and I think the organiser did a good job in neutralising because it was quite dangerous where they neutralised it,” Ayuso said.
“So we have to praise them for thinking about us because for sure there would have been crashes if not. After that, it was just full-on racing, UAE and us, we just controlled because we didn't want the break to get some time.”
Result: Critéium du Dauphiné stage 7
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