Juan Ayuso attacked on the longest climb of the day, Col de la Grande Limite, and proved untouchable, dropping all his rivals with 40 km to go. Despite Mattias Skjelmose’s chase, the Spaniard powered to victory in the Faun Drôme Classic.
Practically the same Faun-Ardèche Classic field lined up today, with only small changes, as the course was slightly easier for punchy riders like Axel Zingle. The big favourites remained the same but for the absence of Jan Christen who broke his collarbone on Saturday. With 53 km to go, a huge crash took out several key riders, including Marco Brenner, who had performed very well yesterday.
The decisive climb in this race was Col de la Grande Limite (3.84 km at 6.64%), where, in the 2022 edition, Jonas Vingegaard attacked with then 19-year-old Juan Ayuso following him, though the Dane did most of the work before sealing a dominant victory.
In 2025, it was a different Dane, Mattias Skjelmose, who tried to attack, with Lidl-Trek working for him across both Drôme classics. However, their early move at the bottom of the climb was unsuccessful. Isaac Del Toro then took matters into his own hands, increasing the pace and stretching out the peloton. He rode full gas for 1 km before handing over to his teammate Ayuso, who attacked with 40 km to go. This time, nobody even attempted to follow. While Ayuso had been unable to drop his rivals yesterday, today he was untouchable. He climbed Col de la Grande Limite in 8:23 minutes, pushing 7.53 ᵉW/kg.
With his rivals unwilling to work together, Ayuso’s gap after the climb already stood at 22 seconds. Behind him, a chasing group formed, including Skjelmose, Ben Tulett, Ben Healy, Christian Scaroni, Gianmarco Garofoli, Marc Hirschi, and others. Due to a headwind and significant drafting benefits, the favourites’ group completed the climb in 8:45 minutes at 6.77 ᵉW/kg. At the summit, Skjelmose attacked, opening a gap over the others in an attempt to chase Ayuso.
Despite efforts from the group behind, Ayuso was simply uncatchable. He delivered a huge performance to win the Faun Drôme Classic, becoming one of the rare riders to claim victory in both Faun races after winning the Faun-Ardèche Classic in 2024. Skjelmose finished second, 23 seconds down, while, in the reduced peloton, Tulett was the fastest uphill finisher, with even Hirschi unable to come around him. They lost 75 seconds to Ayuso.
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“though the Dane did most of the work…”
Me gusta mucho vuestra publicación pero no sé de donde sacáis esto. Creo que o bien le habéis comprado el relato a los haters de Ayuso (aunque parezca increíble ya tenía muchos nada más darse a conocer e incluso en juveniles tal ver por ser un corredor dominante) o no recordáis muy bien aquella carrera.
Yo tengo el video y puedo demostrar que esa afirmación no es correcta en absoluto. Y podría hacerlo con el cronómetro en la mano.. o a simple vista. Ayuso trabajó bastante más y por eso. .y porque Vingegaard es muy bueno..el danés lo pudo rematar al final con bastante facilidad. Gracias por vuestro trabajo, me parece interesantísimo. Un cordial saludo pero “Dad a Dios lo que es de Dios y al César lo que es del César” (Mateo 22:21).