Reluctant Vuelta leader Mas suddenly looks like a winner

This day last week, Enric Mas’ hold on the red jersey was so tentative that he refused to wear it on the podium in Xeraco. Barely an hour after Tadej Pogačar had been forced out of the Vuelta a España by a heavy crash in the finale, Mas was ushered onto the podium to inherit a maillot rojo that had seemed well beyond his reach. 

Out of deference to the fallen world champion and perhaps out of superstition about his own chances, Mas opted against donning the jersey, limiting himself to holding it up sheepishly for the waiting crowds.

Although Mas wore the jersey on the following day’s stage, he still cut an uneasy figure at the start in Villajoyosa, hiding the garment beneath an ice vest until the last second before his appearance at the signing-on podium.

But those feelings would start to fade by the time Mas hit the day’s final ascent of the Alto de Aitana, where he looked at ease amid the flurry of attack and counterattack before accelerating in the final 3km to claim stage victory. Pogačar was gone but the race went on, and Mas was beginning to realise he could actually win it.

At his rest day press conference in Albacete, Mas was asked if he was, on some level, afraid to win the Vuelta. He had, after all, finished on the podium four times without ever really giving the impression that he could win it all. 

For all his experience, this was entirely uncharted territory for Mas, and he confessed that he was trying not to think too deeply about what he was now looking to achieve.

“It’s not that I’m afraid,” Mas said. “It’s just that if I’m thinking all day about winning the Vuelta, it ends up being accumulated stress that I don’t want right now.”

Five days on, it’s fair to say that Mas looks increasingly comfortable with the idea of winning the Vuelta and he might even be starting to allow himself to contemplate it more fully after proving the best of the GC contenders on the summit finishes at Calar Alto on stage 12 and La Pandera on stage 14.

Mas began the second week with a lead of 1:18 over Primoz Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) but mindful that the four-time champion held a trump card in the form of the 32km time trial to Jerez de la Frontera on stage 18.

That put the onus on Mas to do something more than simply defend his jersey. With that test in mind, the Mallorcan has been compelled to pick up more time on Roglič, and he has now succeeded in making gains on two more summit finishes.

At Calar Alto, Mas added 27 seconds to his lead over Roglič and he tacked on another 25 seconds in the closing kilometres of La Pandera on Saturday. Neither gain could be couched as a knockout blow, but Mas is clearly working the scorecard in his favour. 

Mas now leads Roglič by 2:10 and, on this evidence, he has reason to believe he can take time out of the Slovenian at Peñas Blancas on stage 19 or at Collado del Alguacil on the penultimate day. The 31-year-old is no longer just the leader of the Vuelta, he is now the favourite.

For much of his career, Mas has raced like a man most mindful of his own limitations. He knew he was second best to Adam Yates in 2018, he knew he couldn’t beat Roglič in 2021, he knew Remco Evenepoel was on another level in 2022, and it showed in his racing on each occasion.

Mas, it seemed, was a follower rather than a leader, and a rider with very clear ceilings as a Grand Tour rider – the podium at the Vuelta, the top five at the Tour de France.

But something appears to have shifted for Mas this summer, and even before Pogačar’s abandon, there was evidence of that change. When Mas rode an anonymous Giro d’Italia in May, one wondered if his career as a Grand Tour podium contender had ended with his varicose vein surgery last summer, but he was solid at the Vuelta a Burgos and then very surprising on Puerto El Bartolo on stage 6 of the Vuelta a España, when he caught Pogačar near the summit.

Mas was never going to beat Pogačar in a head-to-head contest, of course, and it looked as though he had simply reverted to his old mean of finishing on the podium of the Vuelta. Pogačar’s sudden abandon, however, has forced Mas to step up and try to win the thing. And so far, perhaps even to his own surprise, he’s succeeding.

“I’d say the mental and the physical aspects go hand in hand,” Mas said. “Both in sport and in life. And, of course, when your legs are in good shape, everything works better. You’ve got to be in top form in both areas.”

Mas has also been aided by a surprisingly cohesive Movistar team. There is serious Grand Tour heritage in the ‘Holy Family,’ of course, a residue from the eras of Miguel Induráin and Pedro Delgado, not to mention more recent successes with Oscar Pereiro, Alejandro Valverde, Richard Carapaz and, above all, Nairo Quintana.

But for much of Mas’ tenure at the squad, Movistar have been subject to ridicule for their tactical foibles and strategic decisions at crucial moments at Grand Tours, which provided so much compelling material for the ‘Least Expected Day’ documentary series. 

In many ways, Movistar became the WorldTour’s answer to Tottenham Hotspur. Debacles like their leadership trident at the 2019 Tour or Miguel Ángel López’s abandon at the 2021 Vuelta contributed to the overarching sense that there was something innately ‘Spursy’ about Movistar in the 2020s.

Mas and Movistar’s displays in week two of the Vuelta have given lie to that assertion. At La Pandera, Mas benefited from Raul García Pierna dropping back from the break to pace him, the very same combination that had helped the red jersey hammer home his advantage at Calar Alto 48 hours previously.

In a Vuelta thrown upside down by Pogačar’s abandon, Movistar are suddenly getting things right from the team car in a way they hadn’t really managed since Max Sciandri guided Richard Carapaz to Giro d’Italia victory back in 2019.

And yet, it would be unwise to get too excited just yet. There’s still more than a week of the Vuelta to go, and in the absence of Pogačar or any of the WorldTour peloton’s ‘alien’ talent, this promises to be an especially open finale.

Yes, Mas is in an invidious position and he looks like the strongest man, but the pressure will mount as the prize in Granada draws closer. Felix Gall, now second at 2:06, looks to be hitting his stride and, perhaps more importantly, Roglič might reason that he has nothing left to lose and throw caution to the wind. 

Mas has had an answer for everything so far, but he knows there are still questions to be asked of him at this Vuelta.