{"id":206197,"date":"2026-09-14T08:14:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T08:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=206197"},"modified":"2026-09-14T08:14:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T08:14:00","slug":"enric-mas-wins-thrilling-vuelta-a-espana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2026\/09\/14\/enric-mas-wins-thrilling-vuelta-a-espana\/","title":{"rendered":"Dreams Do Come True \u2013 Eventually: Enric Mas Wins Thrilling Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a"},"content":{"rendered":"

Enric Mas redeemed a career of “almost wins” by winning his home Grand Tour, the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, with power, poise, intelligence and courage. Thrust into the race leader’s red jersey after Tadej Poga\u010dar crashed out of the race on stage 8, the 31-year-old Spaniard was never truly threatened \u2013 though the winning margin of 2:15 over four-time Vuelta winner Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d (Red Bull\u2013BORA\u2013hansgrohe) \u2013 who was almost back to his best \u2013 meant that he and his Movistar team could never relax.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The victory was the first by a Spanish rider of the Spanish Grand Tour since Alberto Contador<\/a> in 2014. After finishing second in the Vuelta GC three times and third once, as well as finishing second in six previous Vuelta stages, this victory finally rids Mas of the image of a talented rider who could never “quite” live up to the billing. Mas’s win on stage 9, when he wore the red jersey for the first time in his career, was only the second Vuelta stage win of his career and his first victory of any kind in nearly four years, since the Giro dell’Emilia in October 2022.<\/p>\n

Saturday’s stage 20 gave the host nation two reasons to celebrate because veteran Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step) also ended years of frustration by taking his first win in five years \u2013 and on the Queen Stage yet! The race was also a triumph for Visma\u2013Lease a Bike, which won seven stages, five by its 21-year-old sprinter Matthew Brennan and two by Wout van Aert. In addition, Sepp Kuss finished fifth in the GC and van Aert took home the green jersey \u2013 a redemption after a late, heavy crash in the 2024 Vuelta caused him to abandon the race when he had an unassailable lead in the points competition.<\/p>\n

A cool champion on a wild and crazy stage<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Mas’s superiority and cool under fire and the strong and intelligent work of his team were never more in evidence than on Saturday’s stage 20, one of the looniest and most exciting one-day races I’ve ever seen. (If you missed it, try to find a video of the entire stage \u2013 not just the highlights; the entire stage is a highlight.) It was also the hardest stage of the race, with some 5,000 meters of altitude gain.<\/p>\n

The madness began at kilometer zero, when van Aert and Ivo Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG) broke away with their first pedal strokes. They were eventually joined by nine other riders, six of them from Uno-X Mobility(!). Following a long period of flat-out, ears-pinned-back racing, a chase group of 54 riders formed between the front group and the peloton, which broke into many pieces on the second ascent of the steep category 1 Puerto de El Purche (8.2km @ 8%, with ramps up to 17%).<\/p>\n

There followed a game of “Musical Saddles” as riders from the middle group dropped back to join the GC group and Landa and other riders surged forward to join the front group. In the meantime, Richard Carapaz (EF Education\u2013EasyPost) and Visma’s Sepp Kuss attacked several times from the peloton. Carapaz was never able to get away, but Kuss’s second surge, about 67km from the finish, was successful. It’s impossible to say how far he rode alone, because the host broadcaster was ill-equipped to keep track of more than two or, at best, three groups on the road.<\/p>\n

(And not only during this stage. Even when there were only two groups on the road, there was often no information or wrong information, so that commentators and spectators were either in the dark or consulted specialized websites like PCS to find out what was going on.)<\/p>\n

We next saw Kuss 28km from the finish, riding on the wheel of van Aert just 3:39 from the front of the race, which consisted of Landa, Uno-X Mobility’s Tobias Halland Johannessen and Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin\u2013Premier Tech). They were on the final climb of the race, the brutal Collada del Alguacil (8.4km @ 9.8%, with ramps of up to 22%). Landa attacked 7km from the finish line, dropping his fellow travelers, and then soloed impressively the rest of the climb. Johannessen finished second, 47 seconds adrift, with Debruyne coming in third.<\/p>\n

Landa had suffered a series of devastating injuries, including breaking his back and this year breaking his pelvis. But he never gave up and has finally been rewarded for his amazing resilience. In a statement posted on the Vuelta website<\/a>, he explained what the victory meant to him: “I thought of my children \u2013 I couldn\u2019t go home like that. And if one day they see this and understand it, I\u2019d like them to know that you must never give up. The team have also believed in me; they\u2019ve supported me throughout the Vuelta, looked after me and shown me affection, and it\u2019s all down to them. With the [terrible] year I\u2019ve had \u2013 actually, years<\/em> \u2013 I\u2019ve suffered a lot\u2026 Today, it all makes sense.”<\/p>\n

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