UAE Team Emirates' Spanish youngster, Juan Ayuso - 'Tadej Pogacar is helping me become a better rider'

“To be learning from and to be close to the best rider in the world is amazing,” UAE Team Emirates Juan Ayuso tells this week’s GCN Eurosport Cycling Show. “He’s helping me to become a better rider.” Winners beget winners. Whether from additional sponsors or an increase in investment by originals, two Tour de France victories enable an outfit to attract a level of financial backing that can turn it from a team with a great rider, to a great team.

Though Tadej Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates are still a galactico or two shy of the supersquads of Ineos or Jumbo Visma, they are very much on their way. Stand-out names from their 2022 roster include Fleche Wallonne winner Marc Hirschi, multi-Grand Tour stage winner Matteo Trentin, and the star of Netflix’s Least Expected Day, talented enfant terrible Marc Soler. Ad/> And, to somewhat less fanfare, in June last year they added baby Giro winner Ayuso to their ranks on a five year contract.

Though increasingly common for teams to (golden) handcuff their stars into lengthy deals, to snap them onto a rider who had still not, at that point, started a single WorldTour race was, to say the least, eyebrow-raising. /> CyclingJuan Ayuso talks to the Cycling Show about learning from 'the best' Tadej Pogacar44 MINUTES AGO A look at his junior record might lower them a little. Still just 19, he has twice been Spanish men’s junior champion on the road, and once in the time trial category.

He finished third in last year’s under-23 European Championship road race, and picked up two ten finishes in the highly rated Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali. “I started when I was seven years old, so I’ve been racing a long time,” he says, “but I still need to discover myself a bit more. I’m still