There is a sliding scale of problems, both in life and the peloton. Sticking with the peloton, you could be a workhorse domestique, scrabbling around for ProTeam contracts every couple of years, knowing despite your best efforts that retirement from professional sport will only mean finding another profession until real retirement many decades later.
Then there are the problems of riders like Juan Ayuso. A 22-year-old supremely gifted Spaniard, signed to superteam UAE Team Emirates-XRG, earning a salary in the multiple millions every year. He has job security until the year 2028 and has already notched up a podium at the Vuelta a España and 14 professional victories, more than half of them at WorldTour level. He has many years left to reach the maximum of his potential and achieve what he wants to in the sport.
Dane Cash
Ayuso’s problems more broadly are that he shares a team with the era-defining Tadej Pogačar, whose talents – combined with UAE’s riches – means a raft of fresh upstart talent (Isaac del Toro, Jan Christen, Pablo Torres) has also been hired underneath him to try and keep the dynasty going when (and if) Pogačar’s star starts to fade. So for Ayuso, this is pressure to perform applied in two directions, both to achieve his own goals and to outrace the competition to be Pogačar's designated successor.
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