IN COMING SPANISH REVIVAL

After a brief drought, the Spanish are again set to infiltrate the ranks of bona fide Grand Tour contenders. Juan Ayuso and Carlos RodrÍguez have big cycling shoes to fill, but they both exude a winning quota of confidence, as Chris-Marshall Bell discovers

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Pascual Momparler, the head coach of the men's Spanish team, is rueing the past. "Since Alberto Contador retired in 2017, for years we have lacked a big champion. OK, we had Alejandro Valverde, but he was old and we were waiting for him to retire.

"Now, I see it completely differently. Now I look at Spanish cycling with optimism. Muchísimo optimismo. We have a few big champions coming, and last year, despite apparently doing nothing, Spain were ranked second in the men's UCI rankings. There's so much to be excited about."

One of the four pillars of cycling, Spain has a rich bike racing history, a mountainous and hot landscape that has spawned male champions as illustrious as Contador, Miguel Indurain, Luis Ocaña, Federico Bahamontes and Pedro Delgado.

In the past five years, however, it has relied almost exclusively on the age-defying feats of Valverde to fly the national bandera, but now two of cycling's greatest prospects, Juan Ayuso and Carlos Rodríguez, hail from the southern European country and look set to be major protagonists in the coming decade.

Just last autumn, Ayuso, aged 19, finished third at the Vuelta a España, while Rodríguez, 22, has finished in the top 10 in seven of the last nine stage races he has finished. Movistar's much-maligned Enric Mas, meanwhile, continues to silence his critics and has now finished second in the Vuelta three times, as well as fifth and sixth at the Tour de France.

"Spain has a history of having big champions across sport, and the press and the public are always pushing the athletes," Momparler adds. "With Carlos and Juan, they've had this pressure since they were young, but it doesn't bother them. The two of them are winners: they study the races, their rivals, themselves, and they both share the ambition and mindset that they must beat their rivals.