Roglic ‘super happy’ despite limited gain on Mas as Red Bull promise to create ‘a situation’

Roglič finished fourth in the 32.1 kilometre time trial to Jerez de la Frontera, 19 seconds behind stage winner Stefan Küng. It was a strong ride from the four time Vuelta winner, but not the kind of gain Red Bull had hoped to make on Mas.

The Spaniard exceeded expectations against the clock, finishing 12th and limiting his losses to Roglič to just 33 seconds.

For Roglič, however, there was satisfaction in his own performance, particularly given the preparation he had been able to do before the race.

“From the start, good, and then more and more to the finish, more and more tired,” Roglič told Eurosport afterwards.

“But looking at how I ran into this Vuelta, like I said, with zero hours or minutes on the TT bike at all, I delivered for myself a nice time trial today. So definitely super happy about it.”

Roglič came into the Vuelta following a disrupted build up after a training crash, yet has worked his way into second overall. Stage 18 appeared to offer his clearest opportunity to put Mas under serious pressure before the final days.

At the first intermediate checkpoint, Roglič had already taken 22 seconds out of Mas. By the second, the gap on the road had grown to 36 seconds.

But Mas refused to fade significantly in the final part of the course and even took some time back.

His ride left Roglič 1:37 down in the general classification, a sizeable margin considering how strong the Spaniard has also been in the mountains.

Asked whether he was prepared to risk everything in an attempt to win another Vuelta, Roglič gave a notably restrained answer.

“Not really,” he said with a smile. “Otherwise, probably I would also do a bit faster these last roundabouts or these corners here.”

That did not mean Roglič was conceding the race.

“On the places where I can, definitely we try to do our best,” he added.

If anything, Roglič appeared more impressed by Mas’ performance than frustrated by the size of the gap.

“For the moment, Enric has showed a really incredible time trial, and all I can do is just congrats, give him a hand,” Roglič said.

His approach to the remaining stages was similarly straightforward. “Let’s say day by day.”

Even being shown the updated general classification did little to change his mood.

“It doesn’t help me more or less,” Roglič said. “Like I said, I put everything on the road. Sometimes you are a bit more in front, sometimes a bit more in the back.”

“At the end, I can be happy to gain a bit and not lose, like most of the Vuelta.”

While Roglič was keeping expectations under control, Red Bull sports director Sven Vanthourenhout made it clear that the team are not ready to accept second place.

Vanthourenhout felt Roglič had produced the performance expected of him. The problem was that Mas had been much stronger than anticipated.

“I think Primož actually rode a very good time trial,” Vanthourenhout told Het Nieuwsblad. “He didn’t leave anything out there, so we have to conclude that Mas is in super good shape. A time trial like this doesn’t lie.”

Before the stage, Red Bull believed Roglič could potentially gain around a minute or even more on the red jersey. Instead, Mas limited the damage to roughly half of that.

“If you look at the standings, he is now at 1:37,” Vanthourenhout said. “That is not impossible, but it remains a considerable gap when you see how strong Mas has already been uphill.”

“So it is up to us to go back to the drawing board and see what we can still do.”

For Red Bull, that means the final stages cannot simply become a case of waiting to see whether Mas cracks.

“Now it is up to us to really take the initiative and try to create a situation somewhere,” Vanthourenhout said.

“I don’t think we should tell Primož, ‘Just ride for second place now.’ That is not why he came here and that is not the rider he is. So we definitely want to get the maximum out of it.”

Mas may have passed his biggest remaining test, but Red Bull are not ready to settle for second. With Roglič still 1:37 down, the initiative now has to come from them.