Just 33 seconds is what Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) managed to gain on race leader Enric Mas (Movistar) in the crucial stage 18 time trial of the Vuelta a España.
But while his team have refused to say the fight for the red jersey is over despite the 1:37 deficit he still has to make up in the final three stages, the Slovenian himself is perhaps a bit more realistic about his chances.
Roglič is a four-time winner of the Tour of Spain, but even he couldn't have predicted the elite performance Mas put in over the 32km course to Jerez, landing a huge psychological win in a day that was, in theory, one where the Slovenian could make major inroads.
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After crossing the line and turning immediately right towards the Red Bull team bus, which was positioned less than 100 metres away from the finish, Roglič headed straight for a tent where an ice bath was positioned, leaving his sports directors to do the initial debrief to the scrum of gathered media.
Both Sven Vanthourenhout and Patxi Vila, sports directors for the Red Bull squad, had the party line of fighting on until the end ready, and it's to be expected, but they couldn't hide the fact that they both wanted more, and could only applaud Mas.
"If I now step on the bus and say to Primož, it's over; congrats on your second place, then I think he kills me, or he kicks me off the bus," said Vanthourenhout to reporters when asked if it was over or whether we could expect more adventurous tactics in the coming days.
"But no, I think in general we always said that the last week and last three days were important ones. That started with the TT, and it's up to us now to first see what the result from today would be, and with that result, now we're going to have a chat together with the DSs, with Primož, and for sure we'll try something, yes."
Speaking just a few metres to the Belgian's left, Vila gave more insight into just how hard it was going to be to overturn such a big lead for Mas, but mostly concurred with the sentiments made by Vanthourenhout.
"1:37 with two stages to go, it's not impossible, but it's hard," he said. "But we have seen that in Grand Tours in the last weekend, a lot of things can happen. There is space to, let's say, create something or just move up, also for others to move up, so it's a nice weekend that we are facing.
"Of course, we always try to win. We will try, but of course we also need to use common sense and have a deep thought about the whole thing. There's still room, but we will try."
After cooling down, Roglič appeared in front of the cameras and microphones and gave an interview as typical of Primož Roglič as you could ever imagine, with seemingly little bother here or there about whether red was still an option.
Is he ready to risk it all? "I mean, not really; otherwise, I would also do a bit faster these last roundabouts or these corners here," he replied with a smile, "but yeah, on the places or where we can, we try our best.
"For the moment, Enric has showed a really incredible time trial, and all I can do is just say congrats.
"[The team] showed me [the GC], but you know, it doesn't help me more or less, no? I put everything on the road; sometimes you are a bit more in front, sometimes a bit more behind. In the end, I can be happy to gain a bit and not lose like most of the Vuelta."
When one journalist started to describe Mas as pretty solid, Roglič interrupted to correct the current form of his long-term rival: "Not pretty solid, super solid, you could say. We cannot touch him; he's making a really strong Vuelta. In the end, it doesn't really change much for me. I try to do my best, do the things I believe, and that's it.
"I don't care much, first, second, third. I'm here to do my best, and we'll see at the end."
'He did everything perfect'
Once they were both on the course, Roglič had begun to make an impression on Mas' lead already at the first time check, taking 21 seconds on his rival. This grew to a 37-second lead at the second intermediate point, but the final 10km run for home through roundabouts and changing winds into Jerez actually saw Mas claw back four seconds, capping off an excellent defence from the Movistar man, who remains in pole position to bring Spain its first male Vuelta winner since Alberto Contador in 2014.
So for the Red Bull directors, it was more a case of Mas being impressive than Roglič getting something specifically wrong, as he finished fourth, 13 seconds slower than eventual stage winner Stefan Küng (Tudor). According to Vanthourenhout, he didn't put a foot wrong on Thursday.
"Under pressure, you never know what will happen, but Mas did it really well under pressure. So that's congrats to him; he delivered a really, really strong performance," said the Belgian DS.
"I think if you look back at the performance from Primož, we are really happy with it. He did everything perfect. I think his numbers, we will see and we need to analyse it, but everything will be good for sure.
"I think the conclusion is that Mas is in really good shape, like we saw already before, and you also see it now in the TT," added Vanthourenhout.
"So did we expect more? I think yes, on paper yes, in normal conditions yes, but we also knew that he's in great shape and that everything was also possible for him. So yeah, it is what it is."
Even Roglič himself couldn't add much more but confirm that his strong start was not maintained all the way to the finish 32km later. But when considering how soon before the race he was hit by a driver and forced to miss most of his planned preparation, including on the TT bike, it's quite stunning that he's even still in the race for red at all.
"From the start, good, and then more and more to the finish, more and more tired, huh," he said. "But yeah, if you look at how I ran into this Vuelta 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."
The next opportunity to try and eat into the 1:37 deficit will come immediately tomorrow with a summit finish to Peñas Blancas, before one of the hardest Grand Tour stages of the year arrives on Saturday to really shake things up, finishing up at Collado del Alguacil.
The most likely outcome appears to be Mas only gaining more time if the Alto de Aitana, Calar Alto, and Sierra de la Pandera finishes are anything to go by, but Roglič, in what might be his final Vuelta, should go down swinging as he tries to upgrade second for a record fifth red jersey title.
"I think we are seeing the best Enric ever, probably, no?. He just showed it on the mountain stages, and showed it today with an outstanding performance in the TT," said Vila. "So it's how it is; still two hard stages to come. It's not over, but 1:37 as a time to come back on; it's not going to be easy, but we'll try."
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