With just 24 hours left before he claims overall victory in the Vuelta a España and after coming through the last mountain stage without any major incidents, Enric Mas has revealed that while there were some tough moments en route to what will be the biggest triumph of his career, he knew how to handle them.
On the hardest climbing stage of the entire Vuelta with nearly 5,000 metres of vertical climbing, the 31-year-old did not try to go for a second summit victory, instead opting to ride within himself and keep his closest rivals under control.
His strategy proved a resounding success, as after an early phase before the climbs where crosswinds briefly threatened to implode his hold on GC, Mas did not experience any significant attacks.
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Richard Carapaz tried, without success, to go from distance with a long-range move 90 kilometres from the line, and even the EF Education-EasyPost rider, fourth overall, said afterwards he had only tried because he knew Mas did not consider him a threat.
Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) did drop Mas on the final ascent to the Collado del Alguacil but only gained 17 seconds on the Spaniard. Rather than trouble Mas, Gall's primary goal was to drop Primoz Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), second overall, who finally crossed the line 38 seconds behind Mas at the line and 55 down on Gall.
The Spaniard's superiority in the mountain stages in this year's Vuelta over Roglič, then, was once again clear, and with it, Mas' superiority in the overall classification. Barring absolute disaster on stage 21, Mas first Grand Tour victory in a race in which he already has four podium finishes is all but his for the taking.
"One day to go, like you said," Mas told reporters afterwards. "It's been a very emotive day, I have a lot of thoughts for my family, my team and everybody who supported me from the day I started riding a bike.
"I knew I was going very well even before the race started. I really didn't know if a podium was possible, but the training had gone very well since the Giro. So it all seemed to be going in a good way. I went for it on the day by day and it all went perfectly."
Mas is now close to claiming Spain's first victory in the Vuelta since Alberto Contador in 2014, the first Grand Tour for his team since Carapaz in the Giro d'Italia in 2019 and the first of his career, at 31.
However, after inheriting the red jersey when leading favourite Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) crashed out on stage 8, and Mas was running second overall, he said that if the pathway to victory had contained difficult moments, he'd known how to overcome them.
"You can't win a Grand Tour without suffering, there were very complicated moments where I was on the limit for a long time, but thanks to a long time and experience, I knew how to turn them round."
At the same time, Mas adopted a strategy of not looking too far ahead to try and keep himself from getting overconfident, and it was a policy that paid off well.
"All the work I've done, I've done it for a moment like this," he said. "I've always dreamed about this. But I always tried to keep to a routine, I almost banned my soigneur from talking to me about what lay ahead, I even stopped him from making jokes about it. And," he said with a smile, "we've still got a day to go now."
The final test over the four major climbs around Granada on stage 20 was one he passed more than comfortably, despite, as he said, the race being "a bit out of control in the first part," when echelons formed in the crosswinds.
Once that moment had passed, "today I enjoyed every kilometre, I was counting them down during the race because I felt strong. I knew I was on a good day."
Sunday's short, punchy stage could still hold a few surprises, and there are even some rumours that the very technical nature of the final, non-classified climb through the streets of Granada might see the GC times suspended before the last lap. But nearly two weeks after he inherited the red jersey from Pogačar, then proved to be more than up to the task of defending it successfully, Mas is almost there.
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