How far can Spain's top Giro d'Italia contender, Enric Mas, go in this year's race? The Movistar racer told reporters before the start that he would sign on the dotted line for a podium finish in Rome, and after an incident-free opening leg in Bulgaria, Movistar management certainly remains quietly optimistic about the 30-year-old's GC options in Italy.
Mas' abandon at the Tour de France then failure to race for months during his recovery process from an operation to cure thrombophlebitis in his left leg has meant that he's flown under the radar in the Giro so far.
However, barring the three Grand Tour winners present - Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), Egan Bernal (Netcompany Ineos) and Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) - Mas has one of the most impressive track records in three-week racing amongst the Giro contenders, mainly thanks to no less than four podium finishes in the Vuelta a España, in 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2024.
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His switch after 14 Tours and Vueltas in total to a first-ever Giro d'Italia, Mas told reporters before the Giro start, was partly due to "having to rest from the Tour de France for at least a year after things didn't work out in the last editions. The atmosphere in Italy is different. Let's go for it."
Currently ninth overall at 10 seconds in the main group of favourites, Mas remains in a good place, Movistar co-director of racing Matt White told Cyclingnews shortly before the race left Bulgaria.
"Our objective going in is top five overall. We'll evaluate how we go, but it's good so far. He's missed a lot of racing due to the injury he had, but he's also got some good training done in between as well.
"He had to obviously solve his injury problem from last year, and then just as he came back to competition this year, he had a touchdown [second injury], so we just had to alter the plans going into the Giro in terms of race preparation. But right now, he's in a good place."
While White agrees that the Blockhaus on stage 7 is where the GC battle will kick off, he emphasises that Mas' strength lies in his ability to go the distance in Grand Tours, deep into the third week. Encouragingly, that's where the Giro is traditionally lost and won, too.
"He's definitely got resilience in the third week. If you look at his results, he rarely has those bad results in the last week. So his biggest quality is consistency, and above all too, he's looking forward to the Giro. He's done a lot of Tours and Vuelta's, but he's motivated to try something new."
As their sole protected rider, Mas has riders assigned to him to keep him in good position on the flat stages, with that role on that terrain falling to Portuguese veteran racer and former National Champion Nelson Oliveira.
"It's Nelson, 100%. He's basically kind of a team captain, done a few Grand Tours over the years," White adds with a grin, referring to the Portuguese National Champion's total of 23 GTs to date, all of them completed.
"But like always with the GC riders, they need to trust that person, and there's a lot of trust between those two."
On the climbs, Mas will be backed by another experienced Giro climber, Einer Rubio. Although the Colombian has two top finishes in the Giro in the past, as well as a stage win in 2023, other team sources tell Cyclingnews that Rubio will not be acting as a Plan B for the overall should Mas falter. Rather - and this is indicative of Movistar's faith in the Spaniard's GC Giro options, perhaps - Mas is their sole leader.
Vingegaard's lack of experience in the Giro d'Italia has been named as a potential chink in his armour, and given Mas is also a newcomer in the Italian Grand Tour, the question is relevant for him, too. Asked about how much of a disadvantage that could be for his team leader, White points out that "the Tour is the most stressful race of all, but the Giro is a different race and a different style of racing.
"But you need to be able to adapt, and Max [Sciandri, Movistar sports director] has done a lot of Giros, I've done a lot of Giros, so we've got a lot of experience in the car as well."
While cold, rainy weather has never been Mas' strongest point, possibly the hardest moment for Mas on paper regarding some of the other GC specialists could be the stage 10 time trial in Tuscany from Viareggio to Massa.
"It's going to be a tough one for him," Sciandri says of the 42-kilometre effort along the coast. "But he knows the area because that's where we started Tirreno, and I went to check it out in person, too. I know the area very well.
"It's a very straightforward course, so we'll try and limit the losses, as obviously there are GC riders with more TT capability."
Regarding the Giro in general, Sciandri says, rather than look too far ahead, "What we are doing right now is dividing it up into blocks. "We'll get the three days done in Bulgaria, then there's the section to the Blockhaus, then the Corno alle Scale summit finish [on stage 9] on the Tuscany/ Emilia border, which I've reconned as well.
It's quite hard, particularly the last four kilometres at 8, 8.5%, and there's a big, long grind beforehand, up and up for the last 90 kilometres."
"But anyway, we're going through the different blocks of the race, giving it time for him to get used to it. "It's a new thing for Enric, but he's got a taste of the Giro now, he knows what this peloton feels like, and we know we're doing ok. It's all good so far."
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