Tadej Pogacar's Vuelta exit reveals a bike race hiding in plain sight

Since Monaco, the sheer megawatts of Pogačar’s power had blinded us to the bike race that was developing in his wake. His dramatic abandon on Saturday meant that this previously obscured contest was now clearly visible.

Out of respect to the fallen Pogačar, Enric Mas had declined to wear the red jersey on the podium in Xeraco on Saturday afternoon, limiting himself to holding up the garment for the photographers, and he had cut an uneasy figure when he took his seat in the post-stage press conference.

By Sunday morning, however, Mas was looking more comfortable with his new reality, pairing his maillot rojo with a red helmet. Out on the road, meanwhile, his Movistar team inherited responsibility from UAE for policing the early break.

But keeping up appearances is one thing; winning a Grand Tour requires substantial shows of force, and Mas’ track record has been patchy in this regard. The Mallorcan has finished on the podium four times at the Vuelta – including second places in 2018, 2021 and 2022 – but without ever really threatening to win it all.

Before Sunday, Mas had won just six races in his entire career, and his lone Vuelta stage victory dated back to the Collada de la Gallina in 2018, when he was younger and decidedly more carefree. 

After Mas swapped Quick-Step for Movistar in 2020, home expectations grew accordingly but he never quite managed to meet them fully. At times, the strain showed quite openly, and Mas never seemed as willing to stand in the spotlight as Alberto Contador had been before him or, indeed, as Juan Ayuso is now.

In that light, Sunday was an enormous test of Mas’ ability to withstand the strain at this Vuelta. Sure, Mas had impressed in chasing down Pogačar on the Puerto El Bartolo on Thursday, but he has a proven track record of being the best of the rest at the Vuelta, especially when he comes in under the radar.

On the Alto de Aitana, Mas carried the weight of the jersey and of expectation, and he rose to meet the challenge. He dosed his effort carefully amid the initial flurry of attacks triggered by Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM), before responding with a fierce effort of his own with 3km to go.

Oscar Onley (Netcompany-Ineos) was the only man to stay with him all the way to the finish, but Mas had too much for him in the final dash to the line to claim stage victory and extend his overall lead to 1:18 over Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), 1:39 over Gall and 2:20 over Onley.

When Mas slumped to 32nd overall at this year’s Giro d’Italia on the back of an injury-shortened 2025 campaign, the assumption was that the 31-year-old was in steady decline. There were signs of a resurgence at the Vuelta a Burgos, however, and the first week of this Vuelta has confirmed the upward trajectory.

“Mas plays the part of Pogačar,” trilled Marca on Sunday evening. That is a touch hyperbolic, of course, but Mas did manage something many didn’t believe was possible: he stepped up and met the moment. 

On the lower slopes of the Aitana, mind, a different rider looked to be auditioning for the Pogačar role on this Vuelta. After placing second to Jonas Vingegaard at the Giro d’Italia in May, Felix Gall set out from Monaco believing he could be the best of the rest behind Pogačar. 

He illustrated the point on stage 4 in Andorra, when his Decathlon CMA CGM team were early aggressors and when he was the only rider to follow Pogačar’s acceleration on the Collada de Beixalis. He only lasted 300 metres, but it was still something of a flex to his podium rivals. As he had repeatedly done with Vingegaard on the Giro, Gall had managed to touch the flame without getting burned. 

With Pogačar now out of the Vuelta, Gall’s ambitions have surely been revised upwards, and his Decathlon squad raced accordingly. Léo Bisiaux, Matthew Riccitello and Gregor Mühlberger set a supersonic pace on his behalf midway up the Aitana, whittling the red jersey group down to its bare bones.

But Gall’s acceleration, when it came, didn’t match the intensity of his lead-out. The Austrian made repeated attempts to forge clear, but he was never able to shake off Mas, Roglič et al, and it’s a performance that raises a question for the remainder of his Vuelta. Gall is clearly adept at delivering a strong climbing display when leading the chase behind an ‘alien’ talent like Vingegaard or Pogačar – but can he beat his fellow mortals to win a Grand Tour? The jury is still out.

Roglič’s pedigree in winning Grand Tours is not in question, with a palmarès that features four Vueltas and a Giro d’Italia. But now two months shy of his 37th birthday and after an injury-interrupted build-up, it wasn’t clear whether Roglič had the form to win this one, even with Pogačar no longer in the running.

The Alto de Aitana hasn’t offered a definitive judgement about anyone, of course, but Roglič had every reason to smile when he crested the summit 12 seconds down on Mas. The veteran was careful not to respond too quickly to the earlier accelerations on the climb, and, like Mas, he saved his most sustained effort for the upper reaches. 

Roglič couldn’t quite live with Mas and Onley in the final 2km, but they couldn’t quite distance him either. With his form seemingly in crescendo and with a 32km time trial to come in Jerez on stage 18, Roglič has ample reason to believe, despite his 1:18 deficit.

Onley, too, will be warming to his task at this Vuelta. The Scot made the error of trying to follow Pogačar too doggedly on Puerto El Bartolo and he suffered accordingly, but there were signs of recovery at Valdelinares and he rode sagely here to move up to fourth overall on the Alto de Aitana, gaining 54 seconds on Richard Carapaz (EF) and 1:44 on Sepp Kuss (Visma) in the process. 

As the Vuelta breaks for its first rest day, Mas and Roglič look the most obvious candidates for final overall victory, but in truth, the dust hasn’t even begun to settle after Pogačar’s shock exit. Every team bar UAE entered this race with second place as the upper ceiling on their ambitions, and stage 9 offered a chance to assess the lie of the land in this unexpected contest for the red jersey. 

At this juncture, it’s shaping up as possibly the most open and least predictable Grand Tour since the 2020 Giro, when the early abandons of Geraint Thomas and Simon Yates left a mixed slate of contenders for overall victory.

Vincenzo Nibali was in the Roglič role back then, as the man with the pedigree but with questions over his condition. Wilco Kelderman was the Mas figure, an on-form rider of proven quality but without a track record of high-end victories. As that Giro drew on, they were overtaken by the surprise pairing of Jai Hindley and eventual winner Tao Geoghegan Hart, neither of whom was touted as a contender until the cusp of the third week.

The Alto de Aitana’s truth will not necessarily hold all the way to Granada, but the mountain still told us plenty. Pogačar’s Vuelta is over and a new one has begun. All bets are off.