Six days before the Vuelta a España finished, Felix Gall was asked by Spanish newspaper MARCA to draw a final GC podium on a piece of paper with the names of who would occupy each position, and his answer was spot on: first Enric Mas, second Primož Roglič and third Gall himself.
The Austrian's confidence that he could hold third was perhaps ambitious given Richard Carapaz, running fourth, was making some hugely unpredictable attacks that at times seemed close to blowing the entire race apart.
But in fact, just as Gall had managed to already finish as 'first of the mortals' behind an unstoppable Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) in the Giro d'Italia, his consistent racing for a second Grand Tour in 2026 netted him another top GC Grand Tour result in the same season.
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Whilst the last rider to complete the Giro and Vuelta on the podium without winning either was Miguel Ángel 'Superman' López back in 2018, third in both races, Gall's next logical objective, he said in his post-race press conference, would be to go for a Grand Tour win.
However, the 28-year-old also issued a note of caution about his chances of that actually happening, pointing out that he had already raised the bar considerably in terms of overall performances in Grand Tours in 2026. As he put it, "that's a huge step.
"One year ago, in the winter, the goal was to be on the podium of a Grand Tour and that already seemed pretty ambitious," Gall told reporters. "We thought it could be possible but only if everything went really well."
"Now this year I once again made a step, so winning a Grand Tour would maybe be the next logical one to do, but it's a huge step and you can't force that.
"Enric was on the podium four times before winning a first Grand Tour so it takes a while maybe to be in this position one day.
"But for sure, after this season I invested a lot, I pushed myself harder than I did in previous years and maybe I can progress a little more in the next years.
"You can't force it, though. I can only do my best season and see what that is going to be."
Victory in the Vuelta a Burgos showed in August that Gall was more than prepared for the challenge of doing for a second Grand Tour in a single year at the Vuelta a España, but even in Monaco, he had made it clear that a podium in Spain was the target.
That was only logical given a certain Tadej Pogačar was in control of the race at the time, and while Gall did manage to open up an advantage on Enric Mas at Valdelinares on stage 7, the day before he had been on the backfoot, losing much more time when Mas pulled away over the Puerto de el Bartolo. Once Pogačar had been forced to abandon, it was a similar scenario with Mas being superior in general on the climbs, whilst Roglič, if not so powerful on the sumit finishes, was able to use his time trialling skills to keep the Austrian out of second place overall.
"Enric was super strong for the whole three weeks, he didn't show any weakness, also as a team they did a great job defending the jersey," Gall said.
"And Primož was also a super strong rider, so that's the right order on the podium for sure. I did my best, but time trialling is not my strong suit, so I lost a bit of time there.
"But I'm happy with my performance on the last stages, and we can have no regrets as a team.
"At the end of the race, there were only five guys here for us, maybe that made a bit of a difference. But I'm proud of how they did and I'm pleased I didn't make any big mistakes, either."
The critical last weekend did see Gall briefly drop Mas on the Collado del Alguacil, the hardest single climb of the entire Vuelta. But whilst encouraging, it didn't really make a big difference overall, as Mas knew he had won overall by that point, and the time gaps were such that Gall didn't constitute a threat to him, only to Roglič - and even that was going to need a major collapse by the Slovenian, which didn't happen.
"My goal here was to be on the podium before the race and that didn't change," Gall concluded.
"Yesterday [Saturday] with Richie [Carapaz] constantly attacking, I was just focussed on him and defending, I didn't want to risk losing it.
"I have no regrets, Enric was for sure the strongest throughout and I'm not sure what I could have done differently [to get a better placing.]
After his third place in Granada, Gall will now head to the World Championships, where he will be able, like Mas and Roglič to make the most of his Vuelta-hardened condition to perhaps make some kind of outsider challenge.
However, in either case, as Gall said by way of conclusion, having finished fifth in the Tour de France in 2025, the next big aim for 2026 was to take a Grand Tour podium. So to do so not once, but twice, already gives him a sense that his season has been a huge success.
"If you had told me one year ago, I'd get two Grand Tour podiums in 2026, I'd have found that hard to believe," he said before ending his press conference. "So I can only be very happy with this season."
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