Longstanding Movistar team manager Eusebio Unzué has delivered a characteristically direct analysis of the disastrous performance by his team's top Giro d'Italia GC rider Enric Mas in the battle for the overall. However, Unzué's also insisted that the 31-year-old Spaniard has the chance to fight back in the third week for breakaways at least.
Speaking in the newspaper AS, Unzué has also emphasised the need for patience with Mas, given his lengthy recovery process from a complex operation needed to cure his thrombophlebitis that he suffered last summer.
Making his Giro d'Italia debut this May after many years of tackling the Tour de France and Vuelta a España, after four podium finishes in the latter, Mas had said pre-race he was hoping to go for the top three in Italy, too.
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Instead, he is now in 23rd place overall, nearly 30 minutes down on overall leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike). As Unzué put it, whilst the numbers in training had given grounds for optimism and subsequent incomprehension when Mas performed so poorly, "The real tests are in the races and there, unfortunately, the mark he's got is a fail."
Regarding the uncertainty that surrounded Mas return to competition after such a long recovery period, starting last July following his Tour abandon, Unzué told AS that "We knew that this incognito existed after such a long time without racing, although we also had reasons to believe tha the could be up there with the best."
"I won't talk about disappointment, but we'd have liked to have seen him in better shape. It's clear that the GC battle is over for him. But there is still a long way to go in the Giro and I think we'll see him in some mountain stages at the level we expected."
To date in the Giro, Mas has had one near-miss in a breakaway, when he got away with UAE Team Emirates-XRG multiple winner Jhonatan Narváez on stage 11 but was beaten in the finale, and he was in the moves again on the very mountainous stage 14 along with three other Movistar teammates. All the Movistar riders were, however, sucked in with the rest of the berak by the voraciously powerful Visma-Lease a Bike team, prior to Vingegaard's final attack on the Cat.1 Pila summit finish.
All of which has turned back the spotlight on Mas again, although Unzué pointed out that the team - which turned in a blistering collective performance as early as stage 3, won by Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) - is on strong form all round. Such was the optimism in the first week, as management told Cyclingnews after stage 3, Movistar had opted to sacrifice former top ten Giro finisher Einer Rubio's chances of finishing high up again on GC in the hope of giving Mas all the support he needed. But it didn't work out.
"We were conscious that the squad was in great shape, and that's allowed us to fight for stages almost every day," Unzue pointed out, "although we've yet to receive a reward for the work we've done."
"On the other hand, there's Enric's situation, and in his position as team leader, unfortunately, he's been a long way off the level we hoped for. There was a lot of uncertainty after eight months of not racing and the operation on his leg last October. When training he didn't have any problems, but we didn't know how he'd react in key efforts like the Blockhaus, where we already say he wasn't at the level we'd hoped for."
While Mas' options and the team's are now limited to stage wins, Unzué also provided some good news about their star signing for the Tour de France, Cian Uijtdebroeks, who suffered a heavy fall in the spring.
According to Unzué, the young Belgian will return to racing in the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the race formerly known as the Critérium du Dauphiné, on June 7, and they are hopeful he can be up there with the best. However, the veteran director ruled out any ideas of him racing the Tour with the option of getting on the podium.
"We just want him to go on growing and learning to lead a team," Unzué said. "The Tour will be his first major experience as leader in a Grand Tour. In the mid-term, we've got big hopes for him."
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