Enric Mas is now the favourite at La Vuelta - Domestique Cycling Podcast

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Mas took 27 seconds at Calar Alto and another 25 on La Pandera, and Movistar have controlled this race in a way nobody expected from them. That leads to the argument that runs through the whole episode: with Tadej Pogačar out and his season now over, does this Vuelta come with an asterisk next to it? 

Bram says it should not. Ethan says nobody looks up who crashed out twenty years later.

Then the heat. 41 degrees on the road to Loja, riders taken to hospital, and Sunday's stage into Córdoba cut by 79.5 kilometres under the extreme weather protocol. Both hosts think the measures are the right ones and both think they are aimed at the wrong end of the day, with the Vuelta moving finishes later for television rather than starting in the cool of the morning.

There is a lot of good racing in here too. Wout van Aert won twice in three days and controlled the whole finale in Córdoba, Visma are on five stage wins with three of them from Matthew Brennan on his Grand Tour debut, and Jakob Omrzel and Marco Brenner produced the two surprises of the week. 

Bram and Ethan then look at the final week: the Jerez time trial, Peñas Blancas, the brutal stage 20 to Collado del Alguacil, and a Granada finish that is not a parade.

Plus the Tour of Britain, where Tim Wellens took the overall and UAE filled the podium on the final stage in Earlston. Ethan was at stage 1 in Lincoln to see Lewis Askey win.

A heads up on the end of this one: Bram's internet dropped in the middle of the Tour of Britain section, so the episode finishes earlier than usual.

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