Perennial bridesmaid Enric Mas has finally become the bride. The Mallorcan has endured a career of almosts at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a with three second places and a third, but this weekend deservedly took his place atop the podium in his home Grand Tour. <\/p>\n
In doing so, he overcame Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d, a man that has amassed four Vuelta victories to date, including on three of Mas\u2019s four previous podium finishes.<\/p>\n
At the beginning of the three weeks, it looked as if Tadej Poga\u010dar would saunter into the Grand Tour triple club and dominate the field in a classically Tadej Poga\u010dar way. But this is Grand Tour racing, and even the best riders see their luck run out eventually. A rock would be the undoing of the Slovenian, tearing the script to shreds \u2013\u00a0but Mas had his own story to finish.<\/p>\n
\u2018Main pillar\u2019<\/h2>\n
To understand the true weight of this victory for both Mas and Movistar, you have to take into account the misfortunes of the team over the past decade. There have been plenty of moments when Movistar have been plagued by internal drama as Grand Tours turned into disaster. Don\u2019t forget, they still haven\u2019t won a Tour de France stage for over seven years. Think back to Marc Soler\u2019s highly publicised meltdown over team orders when he was called back at the end of a Vuelta stage in 2019 to help his leader Nairo Quintana, or Miguel \u00c1ngel L\u00f3pez\u2019s tantrum on Stage 20 of the 2021 Vuelta. That, combined with the documentary series, The Least Expected Day<\/em>, which followed the squad for a couple of years, means a lot of their calamities have been broadcast for all the world to see.<\/p>\n Mas joined Movistar from Quick-Step in 2020 having already achieved his first second place at the Vuelta in 2018. Then, he was defeated by Simon Yates by just 1min 46sec on a team not built for GC success. Now, the Spaniard was tasked with becoming Spanish team Movistar\u2019s \u2018main pillar for the future\u2019. No pressure.<\/p>\n It was in these first two years with the team that Mas achieved his best finishes in the Tour de France with a fifth place in 2020 and sixth in 2021. The Vuelta consistently proved to be more prosperous for him though, where he was most at home away from an emerging Poga\u010dar and Jonas Vingegaard battle in France, and it\u2019s there he notched three overall podiums between 2021 and 2024. Close but no cigar.<\/p>\n As the seasons ticked by though, victories continued to elude him. He claimed a stage at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana in 2021 and won the Giro dell\u2019Emilia ahead of Poga\u010dar in 2022, yet a chasm would form between his successes at WorldTour level \u2013 the Tour of Guangxi in October of 2019 remaining his most recent WorldTour win for seven years. Stage races throughout that period saw him consistently nestled within the top ten, however a WorldTour podium eluded him until 2025 when he finished highly at both Itzulia Basque Country and the Volta a Catalunya, but he was forced to end the season early in the latter end of the Tour. Luck was not on his side.<\/p>\n This year marked a new page ready to be turned, full of possibilities, as he was given the chance to switch up his schedule and swap the Tour for the Giro for the first time, aiming for a high result on GC in Italy. That would not materialise. He plummeted out of contention early, ending up 32nd overall for the second worst result in a Grand Tour that he\u2019s finished, his best stage placing a second to Jhonatan Narv\u00e1ez on Stage 11. In the words of his own team manager Eusebio Unzu\u00e9, it was a \u2018failure\u2019. <\/p>\n Positive indications of form eventually came at the Vuelta a Burgos. The hilly five-day race, regularly used by Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a hopefuls, saw him race to fifth overall, just 41 seconds down on winner, and Vuelta second favourite Felix Gall.<\/p>\n With those signs, and Mas’s consistent peaking for the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, there was reason for optimism.<\/p>\n Mas looked different at this Vuelta. Hungrier. Even after already losing over three and a half minutes to Poga\u010dar by the end of Stage 5, he appeared ready to salvage something from the season.<\/p>\n The biggest sign of what could be came on Stage 6, when he did the unthinkable, becoming one of a few riders to ever have managed to claw back a Poga\u010dar attack, catching the race leader him near the top of the Puetro de El Bartolo’s gravel ascent. He was flying, and he looked confident, too.<\/p>\n The pair steamed down the descent and Mas waved a hand towards Poga\u010dar in a signal to slow down \u2013 one that Poga\u010dar ignored as he veered off the road soon afterwards. \u2018I warned him that a tight corner was coming, he pushed a little harder while I was taking it more calmly,\u2019 Mas later told reporters. A slice of normality returned when Poga\u010dar downed Mas in the sprint that day, but a fire had been lit and he had thrusted himself into the GC conversation.<\/p>\n When Mas inherited the race lead after Poga\u010dar\u2019s abandoned on Stage 8, he refused to wear the jersey at the podium presentation, instead holding it in front of him out of respect, feeling like the jersey wasn’t earned just yet. That would quickly change. <\/p>\n Once in red, Mas persisted, attacking his rivals rather than sitting on in defence, finally taking that elusive victory on the Alto de Aitana, his first Grand Tour stage win since 2018, and taking more time on the massive stage to Calar Alto. It wasn\u2019t only Mas finding another level too, his teammates pulled through in a big way, with Ra\u00fal Garc\u00eda Pierna stepping up and then some, turning from breakaway bandit to superdomestique and key satellite rider.<\/p>\n If something was to throw a spanner in the works, then it would be the 32km individual time-trial on Stage 18. Racing against the clock has never been Mas\u2019s forte, and against former Olympic TT champion Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d, who lurked on the podium ready and waiting to climb the standings, it would be no easy task. However Rogli\u010d could only just into second as Mas put in the TT of his life to maintain red, their gap only cut to 1min 37sec right at the business end of the race.<\/p>\n In the end, on a hectic Stage 20 dominated by large breakaways and attacks from those further down the GC top ten and beyond, it was Mas that would inflate this gap further to Rogli\u010d, only losing time Gall as the Austrian tried to close in on second. With Stage 21 unlikely to affect the GC, and teams pushing for time neutralisation, success was all but guaranteed.<\/p>\n After years of trying, a dash of fortune, maturity, level-headedness and front-foot racing, things finally came up Mas. The red jersey was finally his. And deservedly so.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\u2018A failure\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018I warned him\u2026\u2019<\/h2>\n
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