He was famously on the wrong end of one in the Tour de France six years ago, but there was to be no final twist for Primož Roglič on the final mountain stage of this year’s Vuelta a España. Even for the four-time winner, Enric Mas and Movistar’s lead of 1:37 was just too much to overhaul, and away from his best form, the Slovenian’s last real attempt to try and snatch the jersey at the last actually came a day earlier, when he tried, and failed, to distance Mas in the final 2km to Peñas Blancas.
A raid was what was needed, and while stage 20 provided the perfect route to do it, with ideal chaotic conditions developing on the road towards Collado del Alguacil on Saturday, as his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe teammates stepped up, Roglič could not turn this one around.
In fact, he couldn’t even attack Mas on the final ascent, watching the red jersey that’s been on his shoulders at the finale of the Vuelta more times than it hasn’t, ride away one last time. There was no complex answer, though, he simply didn’t have it.
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With 1:37 to make up on his long-term Spanish rival, Roglič made it to the Collado del Alguacil summit finish after an epic day of racing with the GC favourites, but when Mas’ final teammate Pablo Castillo pulled off, and Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) attacked, it was only the red jersey who went with him.
Eventually losing a minute to the Austrian at the line, Roglič did hold onto his position in second, but only saw his deficit to Mas extended, looking set to finish tomorrow’s Granada finale with a gap of 2:15. It’s been a top performance, especially considering that on July 31, he was struck by a driver in training and forced to miss most of his preparation.
A day of complete chaos
When stage designers for cycling’s Grand Tours come together to design the most cruel routes, stage 20 is an ideal example of the kind of thing they are looking for. Just under 5,000 metres of elevation gain, a double ascent of an 8km at 8% brute, and a final ascent up an, until today, unused road in professional racing are the factors which would be ideal to check off, and Saturday’s route had them all.
While they can guarantee suffering in difficulty, what they can’t ensure is that the racing will match the epic prospect of a full day in the mountains. With Sierra Nevada as its host, madness of some sort was what everyone was expecting to unfold on the 186.8km road from La Calahorra, and that’s exactly what the organisers got.
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Crosswinds with 175km to go saw racing threatened to open up, allowing a 12-rider move to join the two early escapees and form a solid breakaway, led by six riders from Uno-X Mobility in search of the stage win.
However, Roglič’s Red Bull had two riders in the group, Finn Fisher-Black and Gianni Vermeersch, prompting a response from Movistar, with Ivan Romeo getting on the charge. What he wouldn’t have expected was more than 50 riders joining him in this first chasing group on the road, leaving all the big GC names with satellite riders up the road, opening the door to raids.
When the favourites reached the first of the four major climbs, Puerto de el Purche, Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) decided to light things up, attacking across to Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) and trying to anticipate. Gall chased them down by exhausting all of his remaining teammates who weren’t in the break, with only Roglič and Mas also in the wheel.
As satellite rider after satellite rider dropped back, the balance swung in favour of Decathlon, with Sander De Pestel doing top work for Gall, Movistar, as Raul Garcia Pierna and Ivan Romeo were caught and put to work, and Red Bull, as Callum Thornley and Vermeersch were reached. With no one obviously in a better position, the chaos continued to the final ascent.
Collado del Alguacil reared its ugly head, and it was Fisher-Black who put in an impressive final turn for Roglič – his team had delivered; all he had to hope for was the legs to try and put Mas behind. But they weren’t there, and instead, Mas’ final satellite, Pablo Castrillo, got on the front and started to set a strong tempo.
Roglič had already looked like he was struggling at times on the penultimate ascent to Puerto el Duque, and those feelings were confirmed as Gall attacked, as mentioned, and Mas moved away from the rival who has long been doing the same thing to him at Vueltas a España gone by.
Masterful Movistar
When an emotional Mas spoke at the finish and tried to take in all that he had just done – should he finish tomorrow’s punchy day in Granada – it was rightly the team whom he thanked most.
While he has been the figurehead of a career-defining performance that looked like it would never come, as he passed what was assumed to be his peak and saw three runner-up finishes but no victory at the Vuelta added to his palmarès over the years, Mas was guided to each of the last mountain stages by a mountain of tactically astute work from his teammates.
“To be honest, I was counting the kilometres down, and my feeling was super, so the team did again, super good job,” said Mas. “If I won, it’s because of the team; they did everything for me, so thank you.”
The reality is that from the moment he responded to and caught Tadej Pogačar on stage 6, exciting everyone to a version of Mas unseen for years, the Spanish rider confirmed he had rediscovered that former best.
As he inherited the jersey and respected the Slovenian, who crashed out, by not wearing it on the podium of stage 8, Mas went on to only earn it more and more, conquering the Alto de Aitana a day later and going on – alongside some incredible team performances – to extend his lead at every opportunity, except the time trial.
His whole team have been vital to pulling this off, Spain’s first male winner of the Vuelta since Alberto Contador in 2014, but the performances of Garcia Pierna, Castrillo, and Romeo in particular have been out of this world when it comes to domestique work.
The race itself felt like it was transported back to 2019 on stage 20, as Spanish compatriot Mikel Landa scorched up the road to take a legendary breakaway win, but also as Mas moved towards his first WorldTour GC title since the Tour of Guangxi from that very season.
12 years, Spain waited in the dark for a new star to step up – perhaps when everyone least expected it, and when one of their nearly men seemed to have run his last great races – as Thrombophlebitis (a varicose vein) forced him to cancel his season and miss the Vuelta just over a year ago, Mas has emerged as the unlikely winner of the 2026 Vuelta a España. A historic edition that will long be remembered for several things: Pogačar’s shell-shocking crash, Matthew Brennan’s five stage wins on debut, but also as the year of Enric Mas.
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