Four-time Vuelta a España podium finisher Enric Mas has said that he currently has no idea when he will return to racing after injuring his leg in the Tour de France, with the Movistar leader not even ruling out a delayed start to 2026.
Mas crashed during the stage to Mûr-de-Bretagne, in the same mass fall close to the final climb that involved João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla), and Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), among others.
Unlike Dunbar and Haig, who abandoned immediately, Mas continued as far as the Alps, but the injury in his left leg, later diagnosed as thrombophlebitis, forced him to abandon.
The same injury meant that Mas, by far Spain's best recent performer on GC with podium finishes in the Vuelta in 2018, 2021, 2022, and 2024, could not take part in this year's edition.
Furthermore, the 30-year-old has now told Spanish newspaper AS at the Vuelta's stage 7 start in Andorra that he is unable to ride a bike and is uncertain about when he will be able to return to racing.
"It's tough," Mas said, "Even though I knew from when I was injured that I wouldn't be able to make it, so I'm handling it as well as I can.
"It's very tough not to be able to go out on your bike because of your injuries, but I have to accept that."
Mas said that the injury was not painful, but that he was unable to ride a bike or do any kind of sport.
"But it's worrying because we're used to having muscular injuries, and this one is affecting a vein. I just know I'll have to be patient and try and recover because this one is going to take a while to sort itself out."
The absence of Mas and Nairo Quintana from the Movistar line-up in La Vuelta - Quintana was also scratched from the start list after a crash in the Vuelta a Burgos - meant that both team's two best performers in the Spanish Grand Tour were missing, with Movistar forced to look for stage wins instead.
Both 2016 Vuelta winner Quintana, who has his European residence in Andorra, and Mas paid a visit to the team during the stage 7 start, but Mas said that putting an actual date on his return to racing was currently impossible.
That would depend, he said, on the recovery schedule, with a check-up in a few weeks' time and then an operation, currently the only dates he has set in stone.
"Right now, a week more or a week less off the bike doesn't really matter, but I'd really like to know when I can start training for next season," Mas told AS.
"But right now I don't know if I'm going to be racing again in January, February, March, or April … it all depends on how quickly I can recover."
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