Another big day for Juan Ayuso Pesquera. The young Spanish talent was decisive for his team to win Polanc and a hat-trick on the Laigueglia podium. A joint attack felled the escaped Lorenzo Rota and a final flash by Jan Polanc gave the eleventh victory so far in 2022 to the UAE Team.
From behind, Ayuso himself and his teammate Alessandro Covi accelerated the pace to finish drying Rota and Carlos Rodríguez and enter celebrating the finish line of this emblematic Italian race.
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Just a few days after his attacks and exhibition alongside Jonas Vingegaard in the French Drôme Classic, Ayuso showed that he is ready to lead UAE and lead the team at just 19 years old or work overtime for his teammates.
This is how the race and dominance of the UAE passed
With the race decided by the men from the UAE, Polanc had the honor of scoring the victory, the fourth of his career, ending a drought of almost 5 years without winning, specifically since 2017, when he was proclaimed national time trial champion.
At the exit of the Laigueglia Gazprom was not there, already in application of the UCI decision to separate the Russian teams of the competition for the invasion of Ukraine. And Droner Hopper Androni came out with the Ukrainian flag on his jersey, as a tribute to his 19-year-old runner Andrii Ponomar, a national road champion.
The race was demanding from the beginning, with the elevations of Vendone, Paravenna (6.7 km at 5.7 percent) and Testico (7.2 at 4.9%) as appetizers before facing a final circuit of 10 .8 km that contained 4 ascents to the walls of Capo Micheri (2 km at 8.2) and as many to Capo Mele (2 km at 3.4).
The concentration of walls was in the last 50 km, which is where the show was produced in large numbers. Until then, a breakaway of 6 men from modest teams animated the day. With 61 km to go, the story changed when Ineos and UAE began to set a pace that ended up breaking the peloton into a thousand pieces.
In front were 22 men, among them almost all the favorites. Ayuso, Rodríguez, Ulissi, Covi, Polanc, Richie Porte…in short, 4 men from the UAE and another 4 from Ineos were there.
The succession of dimensions invited constant attacks. Ayuso tried to crown each of the difficulties in the lead, but was marked by Rodríguez and the Ineos men.
Ayuso had Covi, Polanc and Formolo, and the Andalusian with Dunbar, Puccio and Porte, while the Frenchman Gaudu could not keep up with the pace of the best, so he gave way far from the finish line.
The race turned into a string of elimination tests. In the UAE Covi attacked, then Formolo while he held on, later Polanc, movements that made Rodríguez suffer, who ended up without a team.
It was a question of the UAE intelligently applying its absolute majority, also with three top-level runners. Polanc, very ambitious, tried it several times, in the last one, close to the finish line, he took Covi and Ayuso.
This is how Juan Ayuso presents himself: Attack after attack at 37 km to eliminate Roglic and Alaphilippe
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