Today’s world of cycling is full of praise for the performances of exceptionally young riders in a sport that requires experience, endurance and stamina, but when Tadej Pogacar’s talent exploded in front of the world with his third place finish, along with three stage wins, in La Vuelta 19, the statisticians pointed out that, six days shy of his 21st birthday, he was not the youngest rider to occupy one of the podium places, since Antonio Jiménez Quiles was only 19 in May 1955, when he took the second place between Frenchmen Jean Dotto and Raphaël Geminiani, being also the youngest rider in the race. Granada’s greatest cyclist died on 15 June at the age of 88.
The best young rider classification, reserved for competitors under the age of 26 that year, has existed on La Vuelta since 2017. Its white jersey has already been popularised by two-time winner Enric Mas (in 2018 and 2020). Last week, its defending champion, Remco Evenepoel, became the youngest world champion for individual time trial ever, at the age of 23 – but he will only wear the rainbow jersey in Valladolid (stage 10) if he doesn’t lead one of the four classifications (general, points, mountain, young), and he won’t be able to wear it in Barcelona on August 26 as an individual champion’s jersey (world, continental or national) is not permitted by the regulations on the occasion of a team time trial.
In Spain, the Belgian can technically equal the record that Pogacar has just set in France: winner for the fourth time in a row of the classification in this age category (Andy Schleck had stopped at three: 2008, 2009, 2010). Incidentally, the Slovenian, who has been presented with 75 white jerseys at the Tour (in addition to the yellow ones) in the 84 stages he contested between 2020 and 2023, has said goodbye to his “beloved white jersey” when he left Paris, as he will no longer be eligible next year.
Evenepoel, who wore La Roja from stage 7 onwards last year, didn’t wear the white jersey at La Vuelta during the race. The public has therefore become accustomed to seeing it on the shoulders of Juan Ayuso, which makes all the more sense given that the prodigy from Javea in the Valencian Community was not yet 20 when he accompanied Evenepoel and Mas on the stage set up in the Plaza de Cibeles (he was born on 16 September 2002 in Barcelona, where La Vuelta is going to start this time around). “I finished 3rd in 2022, so why not dream of winning in 2023?”, said the Spaniard several times since his race program for his third pro season has been centred around his national Tour again. With UAE Team Emirates, he’s expected to line up alongside top-class team-mates like Joao Almeida, Jay Vine and Marc Soler to rival the armadas of Jumbo-Visma and Ineos Grenadiers, among others.
Ayuso and Evenepoel once again shared a final podium in another national Tour this year, coming second and third respectively in the Tour de Suisse won in June by Dane Mattias Skjelmose. Ayuso had a tough time at the start of the year. He skipped the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana in February when Evenepoel was dominating the UAE Tour, and also the Volta a Catalunya in March due to tendonitis that handicapped him in high-intensity training. He resumed racing at the end of April at the Tour de Romandie and won stage 3 (an 18.75km time trial). It was his first WorldTour victory, followed by two more at the Tour de Suisse in June (solo in the mountains and again against the clock). Runner-up in the Spanish road championships, he crashed twice at the end of July, in the finale of the Prueba Villafranca (3rd all the same) and at the Circuito de Getxo (abandon).
Ayuso’s exploits at La Vuelta 22 combined with those of Carlos Rodriguez (7th overall), who amply confirmed the hopes placed in him by finishing 5th in this year’s Tour de France as well as winning stage 14 in Morzine, have laid the foundations for the post-Valverde era in Spanish cycling. In the 21st century, it is often at La Vuelta that the future is seen.
