photo credits @ Tirreno-Adriatico
Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) stamped his authority on stage 6 of the Tirreno-Adriatico today, soloing to victory atop the Frontignano climb after being setup by teammate Isaac Del Toro.
Ayuso made three attacks during the final 3.5 kilometers, but they were shut down by Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling), Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) and Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step). However, on his fourth attempt, the Spaniard forged clear, quickly opening up a 13-second gap on Pidcock and Hindley.
“We worked really well. The team did an amazing job. The last k or so I suffered a bit but I’m glad I made it,” Ayuso said after the finish.
“In the final, we knew we had to make it hard. It was quite windy, and on a wheel, you could save a lot. I am glad I got on the wheel of [Isaac] Del Toro because I was really suffering on his wheel, but everybody else was [suffering] also.
“I just went for it and I knew I just had to put in my tempo to the top.”
Meanwhile, race leader Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) put up a courageous defense of the leader’s jersey, but came in 50 seconds behind the winner, dropping the Italian rider to third on GC behind Ayuso and Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) going into tomorrow’s final stage of the race.
Earlier, Samuele Battistella (EF Education-EasyPost) was the first rider to try and escpe the peloton, who was later joined by Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) and Andrea Pietrobon (Polti-VisitMalta), while Chris Hamilton (Picnic-PostNL) and Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) later bridged the gap to make it eight up front.
Back in the peloton, Del Toro was instrumental in reining in escapees with 4.5 kilometers to go, leaving Ganna on the wrong half of the split. Ayuso didn’t hesitate to seize the momentum led by his teammate, making a series of accelerations that only Pidcock, Hindley and, with some effort, Landa managed to respond to. Yet, when the Spaniard surged away for a fourth time, his three pursuers were left fighting for second place.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
