'Pure misery' - Juan Ayuso abandons Giro d'Italia after brutal allergic reaction to bee sting
By Ben Snowball
Updated 29/05/2025 at 20:04 GMT+1
React to this story
Juan Ayuso’s Giro d’Italia has ended in bizarre fashion: an allergic reaction to a bee sting. The 21-year-old turned up to Stage 18 with his eye badly swollen and tried to battle on, but called it a day after an hour. It marked the final blow in a campaign marred by crashes, injury and time losses - a far cry from his pre-race ambition of fighting for the pink jersey in Italy.
'I can’t see out my right eye' - Ayuso takes off sunglasses to reveal swollen eye after bee sting
Video credit: TNT Sports
Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) has abandoned the Giro d’Italia after suffering an allergic reaction to a bee sting.
The Spaniard rocked up to Stage 18 with a badly swollen eye after a bee flew into his helmet and stung him, but vowed to fight on in his pre-race interview.
However, after riding for an hour at the back of the bunch on Thursday's run to Cesano Maderno, he decided to call it quits.
It was the final miserable twist in a race that unravelled for the UAE star. The Spaniard arrived as co-leader, but his pink jersey tilt effectively ended with an early crash that required stitches in his knee.
After leaking time in the mountains on Tuesday, things got worse on Wednesday.
He struggled again on the mighty Mortirolo, finishing adrift with the sprinters, and then suffered an allergic reaction to the sting.
When he appeared at the start of Thursday’s stage, his swollen face told the story.
/origin-imgresizer.tntsports.io/2025/05/29/image-51467701-37b6-4c9b-9464-4aad80b02dee-85-2560-1440.jpeg)
'Really nasty' - Ayuso reveals shocking swelling around eye after bee sting
Video credit: TNT Sports
"It's been a couple of hard days. Yesterday, a bee went inside my helmet and I can't see out my right eye," he said ahead of Stage 18.
He then took off his sunglasses to show the camera and continued: "I know it's going to go viral, but it is what it is.
"The team doctor said it's best for me not to start, but I really want to try and give my best to be here for the team.
"Yesterday, I was not useful at all because I was really feeling bad, but I hope I can recover for the next days.
"I'm going to try and get past today, I'm not really convinced I can, but I just want to do the first kilometres and see if it's safe for me to be in the bunch."
- 'Like U7 team scoring first-ever goal' - Euphoria as Del Toro roars back to win
- 'It was too much' - Why Roglic withdrew from Giro after crash
Despite initially battling on, Ayuso finally called it a day with 110km remaining on Thursday.
He lost nearly 15 minutes on Tuesday’s brutal mountain stage, then dropped over 35 minutes the following day as he struggled with his knee injury.
"I've never been in a gruppetto. It's really hard to take," he said.
"When you saw the stages before the Giro, and you see we're going up the Mortirolo, I didn't imagine I would be going up in the place I was.
"You imagine you're at the front, trying to win the race. And yesterday was just pure misery at the back. It's not easy."
The one consolation is UAE team-mate Isaac del Toro has stepped up superbly and holds the leader's maglia rosa with four stages remaining.
Related Topics
Advertisement
Advertisement