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Juan Ayuso Pesquera (born 16 September 2002) is a Spanish road cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam .
In 2017, he won the gold medal in the road race and the time trial at the Spanish Cadet Road Championships (15 to 16 years old), and defended his time trial title the following year. Moving up to the junior category, he immediately made an impact, winning the national junior road race title in 2019, and both the road race and time trial the following year. Juan Ayuso, con un doblete, y Eva Anguela, campeones de España junior In 2020, he dominated the national junior racing circuit, winning the in addition to several other stage races.
Ayuso showed strong form at the start of the 2022 season, with a fourth-place finish at the La DrĂ´me Classic, then second in the Trofeo Laigueglia, finishing between his teammates Jan Polanc and Alessandro Covi. He then competed in the Volta a Catalunya, his first UCI World Tour stage race, where he finished fifth overall. At the beginning of May, he held second place in the Tour de Romandie going into the final time trial, where he lost time and fell to fourth place. However, he still took home the young rider classification award. He took his first professional victory in the Circuito de Getxo at the end of July in a four-man sprint. He was then selected for his first Grand Tour: the Vuelta a España, where he was the youngest rider in the race. He showed promise for the general classification early on, finishing fourth in the first mountain stage, 55 seconds behind the winner Jay Vine. This put him in fifth place overall. Ultimately, he managed to move up to third by the end of the race, behind Remco Evenepoel and Enric Mas. With this result five days before his 20th birthday, he became the second youngest rider in history to finish on the podium of a Grand Tour, behind Henri Cornet, the winner of the 1904 Tour de France. El ciclismo español ilusiona: paĂs con más podios en grandes vueltas en 2022 Ayuso had a slow start to the 2023 season due to tendinitis in his right Achilles tendon, and did not make his debut until the Tour de Romandie in April.. He took the race lead after winning the stage three time trial, but fell back to 16th the following day. His next race was the Tour de Suisse. After having been in difficulty the stage before, he won the fifth stage solo on the day marred by the death of Gino Mäder. He then won the time trial on the eighth and final day, ultimately finishing second overall, nine seconds behind winner Mattias Skjelmose. In August, he entered his second Vuelta a España, where he took third-place finishes in stages three and eight, and finished fourth overall, winning the young rider classification in the process.
In February 2024, he won the Ardèche Classic in a four-way sprint ahead of Romain GrĂ©goire, Mattias Skjelmose and Felix Gall. The following month, he competed in Tirreno–Adriatico, where he won the opening time trial. However, he lost the race lead to Jonas Vingegaard, taking home second. In April, he took part in the Tour of the Basque Country, which saw several of the main favorites abandon following a large crash during the fourth stage. Sitting in third overall going into the final stage, Ayuso was able to drop race leader Mattias Skjelmose on the last climb, securing the overall victory by a margin of 42 seconds to compatriot Carlos RodrĂguez. This marked Ayuso's first major stage race win. He rode in the 2024 Tour de France, but had to abandon the race after testing positive for COVID.
Ayuso's breakout success continued at pace in March 2025 with victories in both the Faun Ardèche and Faun Drôme classics, the Trofeo Laigueglia, and an overall victory at the Tirreno–Adriatico. He entered the Giro d’Italia as a pre-race favorite, alongside Primož Roglič. However, Ayuso’s race was marred by difficulties, including inter-team leadership battles and bad luck, of which included multiple crashes, and a bee sting which caused swelling in his right eye. Ayuso remained in the race despite losing over 50 minutes on stages 16 and 17, but abandoned after being dropped early on stage 18 while riding against doctor’s advice.
In September 2025, midway through that year's Vuelta a España, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG announced Ayuso’s early contract termination, saying that his exit was due to differences in vision regarding development plans and alignment with the team’s sporting philosophy. Responding strongly, Ayuso revealed that his departure has been planned for the end of the season but was made public earlier than what he agreed upon without his consent. He accused the UAE management of acting like a “dictatorship” and attempting to damage his image. Prior to the announcement, strong rumours had linked Ayuso to Lidl-Trek.
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