{"id":108116,"date":"2026-07-25T19:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T19:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/108116\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T19:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T19:40:12","slug":"finishing-seventh-or-fifth-in-the-gc-wasnt-going-to-change-much-for-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/108116\/","title":{"rendered":"Finishing seventh or fifth in the GC wasn\u2019t going to change much for me"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a bit of yesterday\u2019s frustration\u2014it was more frustration than disappointment\u2014because when you give everything you can\u2019t ask for much more. It\u2019s been a complicated Tour for me, but giving up is never an option and today I wanted to leave everything I had out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spaniard revealed that both UAE Team Emirates XRG and Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale repeatedly made it hard for him to be in the move.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very tough from the gun because neither Decathlon nor UAE wanted to let me go in the break. Several riders told me they were going to shut me down, so I had to try to force the selection myself and take responsibility. I burned a lot of matches there, although they probably would have beaten me at the end anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Juan<\/p>\n

Juan Ayuso at the 2026 Tour de France\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Ayuso, the stage mattered more than the general classification<\/p>\n

Ayuso made it clear the overall had ceased to be a priority. His only fixation was saying goodbye to the Tour with a stage win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI set out for the stage. Truth is, finishing seventh or fifth in the GC wasn\u2019t going to change much for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lidl-Trek rider acknowledged that, after what happened the day before, he had pinned his hopes on that partial victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday, when the stage ended, I already had it in mind to try to win today, but honestly I haven\u2019t had the legs I would have liked. You have to add a bit more heart and pride, and that\u2019s what I tried to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the final result fell short of his initial ambitions, Ayuso said he leaves satisfied with the attitude he showed over the three weeks of racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m quite proud because, even though things didn\u2019t go as I wanted, I always tried to bring out the best version of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Juan<\/p>\n

Juan Ayuso was in the breakaway of the day on stage 20 of the Tour de France\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Spaniard explained he began to feel that the sensations weren\u2019t as expected from the first major mountain day.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the first week, on the Tourmalet, I was already struggling. But with each passing stage I tried to push this forward in the best way possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ayuso concluded by taking stock of a Tour that did not allow him to finish on the podium, though he insisted he never stopped giving his all on the bike.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel more frustration about not arriving here with the form I would have liked, but disappointment, not at all. I\u2019ve always given my best and I\u2019m proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

With this attack on stage 20, the Spaniard wrapped up his 2026 Tour de France<\/a> with a combative image right to the final mountain day. Although he will ultimately have to settle for seventh in the general classification, his words show that, even in a Tour far from his best level, he never stopped fighting for a win that slipped away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cAfter a bit of yesterday\u2019s frustration\u2014it was more frustration than disappointment\u2014because when you give everything you can\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[16],"tags":[50,88,52376,29707,4879],"class_list":["post-108116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alps","tag-alps","tag-cycling","tag-juan-ayuso","tag-lidl-trek","tag-tour-de-france"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116982318834462706","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}