There's a new wonderkid on the scene joining UAE Team Emirates and the Spanish are going mad over him
UAE Team Emirates have already signed the 18-year-old on a five-year contract.
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- Sign up to our newsletter Newsletter

Cycling isn’t short of young sensations right now, and there’s a new one about to enter the WorldTour peloton: Juan Ayuso.
The Spanish 18-year-old has been in imperious form during the 2021 season in his first year in the U23 ranks, winning five UCI races including the recent Baby Giro in which he claimed three stages.
In dominating the event, he became the youngest ever winner of the famous race and became the first Spanish rider to do so.
Ayuso has been riding for Colpack Ballan since the start of the season, the U23 development team of UAE Team Emirates.
He signed a five-year contract with UAE Team Emirates last year (although, given his age, it was his father who actually penned the deal) with an agreement that he would join the team of Tadej Pogačar in August.
However, following his Baby Giro victory, that has been advanced and he officially joined the team on June 13.
Who is he and why are the Spanish so excited?
His rise has captured the attention of the Spanish cycling public throughout the season, with the press in his home country obsessed by his talent and potential.
As well as daily national sports publications such as Marca and AS repeatedly writing articles on him in the past few months, Spain’s biggest newspaper El País has also been profiling him. Marca recently declared (opens in new tab) that “the future of Spanish cycling is here now.”
Joxean Fernández Matxin, manager of UAE Team Emirates, told AS (opens in new tab): “In the lower categories, he was winning with so much ease. He was attacking 60 kilometres from the finish line and arriving alone.
“Why does a team like UAE sign a contract that is so long? Well, because he has class, ambition, a winning personality and character. He is a pure talent and this you can’t buy.”
Ayuso shares the same coach, Íñigo San Millán, as reigning Tour de France champion Pogačar, himself only 22.
San Millán revealed to Marca that Ayuso “has the conditions of Tadej: he produces 6.2 watts/kg. He goes well in the mountains, on the flats, in time trials, although Pogačar is calmer than him.”
Ayuso, who calls Alberto Contador his hero, is a climber who remains seated, but with a tall figure of 1.83m and a weight of 65kg, he has also been likened to Mathieu van der Poel.
Comparisons between him and his new team-mate Pogačar have already started, but Matxin dismissed them. “He must learn how to live with the interest that he has created. When comparisons are made, it does annoy him. What we want is that this is the only Juan Ayuso.”
He will start racing for his new team soon and will be given a predominantly Spanish calendar, which could include Clásica San Sebastián. It is not expected that he will ride the Vuelta a España, though.
Ayuso, who was born in Barcelona but grew up in Atlanta in the United States until he was eight before spending the rest of his childhood in Jávea in Alicante, possesses not only obvious talent but commitment that has shocked even his coach.
San Millán told Marca: “If you tell him to do four hours, he will do four hours and one minute in case he had to brake at a traffic light.
“He is the most professional rider I have seen in my life, but you have to stop him because he does not want to stop.”
In a separate interview with El País, his coach added that “Juan wants to know everything in detail. He has a great appetite to know and understand the physiological, performance and training details. He is intelligent, applied, disciplined and methodical to the point of boredom.”
It is a description that Ayuso has not denied, telling the same newspaper: “It is not just me who has this new scientific and technological vision of cycling. The fashion was started by Remco Evenepoel three years ago.
“Those of us born in 2001 and 2002 are from a very good generation. In three or four years we will all be at the top.”
Thank you for reading 10 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access
Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription
Join now for unlimited access
Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
Chris first started writing for Cycling Weekly in 2013 on work experience and has since become a regular name in the magazine and on the website. Reporting from races, long interviews with riders from the peloton and riding features drive his love of writing about all things two wheels.
Probably a bit too obsessed with mountains, he was previously found playing and guiding in the Canadian Rockies, and now mostly lives in the Val d’Aran in the Spanish Pyrenees where he’s a ski instructor in the winter and cycling guide in the summer. He almost certainly holds the record for the most number of interviews conducted from snowy mountains.
-
-
The brass neck of it! Organisers draft in replacement after race lap bell stolen
Organisers of the Peaks 2-Day in Yorkshire call in reserves after thieves make off with the the well-travelled clanger
By James Shrubsall • Published
-
What is a tubeless tire? Everything you need to know about tubeless tech for road and gravel bikes
Thinking about 'going tubeless'? Here's a short guide to the tire and rim technology
By Luke Friend • Published
-
Tom Boonen invited to test Colnago V4Rs after criticism of Tadej Pogačar's bike
Boonen and fellow ex-pro Dirk de Wolf invited to Italy for a "public conversation" on the data they used to make claim that bike hindered two-time Tour de France champion
By Tom Thewlis • Published
-
Molano sprints to stage four victory at UAE Tour to save UAE Team Emirates' race
Colombian rider wins stage for home team at fourth opportunity, as Remco Evenepoel continues in race lead
By Adam Becket • Published
-
All the 2023 kits: EF Education-EasyPost share latest collaboration with Rapha
American WorldTour team become latest to release their new 2023 kit, here's the rest
By Adam Becket • Published
-
From Grand Tour victories to gold medals: The nine best signings of 2022
We look back at the signings that made the biggest impacts during this year's season
By Tom Thewlis • Published
-
'There are serious implications' - Tadej Pogačar's UAE Team Emirates face sanctions threat
Growing pressure on Western governments to sanction UAE over Russia could spell trouble for Tadej Pogačar's team
By Chris Marshall-Bell • Published
-
Alpecin-Deceuninck confirm Jay Vine move to UAE Team Emirates
The Australian previously hinted that he'd remain with the Belgian team in 2023
By Tom Davidson • Published
-
Tadej Pogačar is still the best rider in the world, right?
16 wins, a third monument, but second at the Tour de France sums up his 2022
By Adam Becket • Published
-
Adam Yates leaves Ineos Grenadiers for UAE Team Emirates
British rider agrees three year deal with new team
By Tom Thewlis • Published