Juan Ayuso, the "perfect machine" that breaks the mold: "He knows biomechanics, physiology, glycogen..."

• Australia World Cup "Disappointment" in the RFEC due to the resignation of Juan Ayuso due to fatigue

• La Vuelta Juan Ayuso, the boy who surpasses Pogacar in precocity and who feels more pride than pressure

From his neck always hangs a

that his grandparents gave him when he was born on September 16, 2002 in Barcelona.

On the bedside table in his room there were photos and autographs of

, childhood treasures.

, the author of the renaissance of Spanish cycling, is a boy without adolescence.

he says.

Since youth he only lives for cycling.

''He only skipped the script with the

, but very rarely.

At the age of 15 he already controlled nutrition like a professional.

He cared a lot about breakfast, oat milk.

He was very modern.

I had not seen anything like it,''

Bathco Cycling Besaya youth team, from the Cantabrian town

, with which he was proclaimed double Spanish time trial and road champion.

He rivaled and surpassed

, even though he was 19 months younger.

Both, banners of the new and talented Spanish generation, have grown up constantly challenging each other.

The

of

.

Juan trained in the Alicante quarry;

Carlos, at Alberto Contador's academy.

''Ayuso was a

, very competitive and ahead of his age.

He cared about mechanics, physiology, watts.

, he was the role model for his classmates.

He won with amazing ease.

Everyone imitated him,'' says Mantilla, a 63-year-old director who has been teaching kids for more than 40 years.

have passed through his school, among others

.

GLOBETROTTER

Ayuso, who has given up the World Cup in Australia due to fatigue, is the result of this global time.

He was born in

(he turns 20 this Friday) but two years later he left, with his family, to

, where his father,

(58 years old, economist), was transferred by the Randstad company.

He stayed there until 2009, when he came to

.

''Of Atlanta I remember little, the house where we lived, the street where I played.

The best thing was learning English," says the new idol, who now lives in

. His mother,

, is also an economist. His sister

(23 years old) plays basketball and works in London, at the JP Morgan company.

Juan, has always been linked to sport.

Question of genetics and education.

His father, in addition to being an expert in numbers, is a physical trainer and co-director of the

cycling team .

He was in charge of molding the profile of the new champion.

He accompanied him to the races, designed his training sessions and took him to the races to get autographs from Contador, Purito and Valverde.

He has followed his son in several stages of the last Vuelta a España.

''

.

He is passionate about anything and gives it his all 120%,'' he says.

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football school

and he sometimes stepped on the pitch at the Valdebebas facilities.

He played as a right back, he liked

, but he preferred

.

In 2011, the Ayuso clan moved to Jávea.

His parents enrolled him in a British school because they did not want him to lose the level of English he acquired in the

.

In the city of Alicante he combined

, but he soon ruled out the sport of wind and water.

In the end, thanks to the insistence of his friend Mateo, he signed up for the Jávea cycling school, where he was impressed by his mastery of the bicycle.

He joined the cadet team of

and won most of the races.

So he already knew that he would be a professional cyclist.

Juan Ayuso's idol was Alberto Contador.

During the summers he would sit in front of the TV and dream of winning a Tour de France.

He always looked at the greats.

In his room there were also photos of

.

He likes football and Formula 1. He is fluent in English and Italian (he lived for a season in Bergamo).

"He is very competitive, he doesn't give in to anyone, as he has shown in this Vuelta", recalls José Antonio Mantilla.

"Both in the races and in training he was at his best. He had to be stopped. He learned quickly and knew how to suffer. On one occasion he punctured several times and gave up to seven minutes, despite this he began to come back and lost the race by a few seconds'', says the coach of the Cantabrian team.

LONG CONTRACT

The recovery capacity that he treasures is what has dazzled

, who signed him for the UAE in 2020 and transferred him to Colpack-Ballan, the team with which he won the Giro sub'23, becoming the youngest winner of this test.

'' Juan has the winning genes, he only thinks about winning.

If he makes fourth he is happy but he never goes out to make fourth", he stresses. Talent cannot be stopped and for this reason,

and they decided to bring forward Ayuso's debut in the Vuelta, scheduled for 2023 Full success With only one year on the World Tour, he has fought for the podium of the Vuelta, breaking the record for early modern cycling.

The boy is not afraid that the weight of the rebirth of Spanish cycling will fall on his back, but he flees from emergencies.

"

. It is normal for everyone to look at Carlos Rodríguez and me, but I ask for a little patience, we are going to wait one or two years", he warned.

He is so good that the UAE management has renewed his contract until 2028, no broker has such a long-term agreement.

"

. Before, you had to stop him because he was eager to train and race. He always gave you more than what you asked for. He has fantastic qualities. Others at his age have a negative progression, but he goes further every year. One of his great virtues is that he recovers from effort very quickly. Juan has privileged genetics, but that is not enough. Those genes must be stimulated and he knows how to do it with exercise and positive habits. He knows how to hit the right button",

.

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Iñigo controls Ayuso's preparation on a daily basis and exchanges data with

, another key player in the training of the young runner, who for several seasons has carefully planned the energy demand necessary for races and training.

"Juan has training and preparation like I have never seen in a cyclist.

... Breaks molds with the cyclists of yesteryear, who were not interested in this type of subject.

It also breaks with the romantic concept of cycling, which was guided more by intuition than by data.

Now everything is more planned and measured.

In that sense, Ayuso is a perfect machine: he does everything to the letter.

He is very methodical, with spectacular discipline.

He questions you about everything and is interested in the causes and consequences.

Until last year he was a bit obsessive.

He called me constantly to ask anything, even when you pointed out days off.

I remember when I met him, it was during a pandemic and we had contact by 'zoom', it was two and a half hours of conversation with him and his father, I was exhausted by the intensity of the topics and questions they asked.

Now, after a year in the elite, he is calmer, calmer,

', adds San Millán, who also constantly exchanges information with the psychologist

, another fundamental collaborator in Ayuso's evolution.

San Millán assures, in a telephone conversation from his residence in the US, that he is not used to working with people so young that they perform at the highest level.

It is clear to him that these privileged kids will go far physically, but he has doubts about the psychological aspect: "From very early on they come under great pressure and could get tired, that's why it's essential to have a 'mental coach' to help them with relaxation and mentalization techniques".

''It's very simple, without egos.

Nothing is believed.

The few frictions he has with his rivals lack malicious intent.

.

He has gone straight from college to university.

When he was a youth he won eight minutes ahead, he didn't need a team to compete and win.

Now he has learned to manage in a group.

He has matured but has not lost his spark.

He always looks very confident, fighting for the best.

, like he's in a junior tryout."

Ayuso, a perfect machine with the face of a child.

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