Oh, what could have been. Seven categorised climbs, more than 5,000m of elevation gain, and three teammates of the race leader abandoning (reportedly but unconfirmed due to an outbreak of salmonella): stage 20 of the Vuelta a España had all the ingredients for a spectacular showdown to reorder the podium and potentially dethrone Primož Roglič at the summit of the general classification, just a day after he regained his red jersey. But no.
Though Roglič lost Dani Martínez, Nico Denz and Patrick Gamper at different intervals during the 172km expedition from the verdant and remote Cantabria to Picón Blanco in Burgos, neither of his rivals put in a serious attack, and no-one bothered to test if he too was feeling 100% despite a virus evidently sweeping through his team. Instead, the stage went exactly how Roglič would have wanted it to: another team doing the chasing all day, the GC group arriving en masse to the finish together, and his lead marginally increasing, from 1:54 to 2:02 to Ben O’Connor who remains in second.
Rather than being treated to a penultimate day extravaganza, what was on display was puro ciclismo español. In the name of Landismo, a last-ditch attempt to boomerang the eulogised-yet-ridiculed Mikel Landa back up the GC after he lost time earlier in the week, T-Rex Quick-Step manned the front of the peloton all day. The breakaway never stood a chance, and at some point Landa would attack. And attack he did, 36km from the finish. But, like ever, no one really took any notice and he was brought back into the fold. And then with 500m remaining, he went again, a blistering move that was… you know the story by now. He blew up and lost time.
Then to his fellow compatriot and former teammate, Marc Soler. The Catalan has been one of the race’s stars, perhaps the star. Certainly the roadside fan’s favourite. Liberated by UAE Team Emirates’s realistic GC ambitions fading with the abandonment of João Almeida in the first week, Soler has been in the break in seven of the last 12 stages, out the front for 963km, scooping a hat-trick of third places and finally a win at Lagos de Covadonga. But though he’s been sporting the white jersey of UAE since 2022, Soler still has Movistar tendencies running through his veins. In the mountain leader’s jersey, he and UAE teammate Jay Vine embarked on an amicable-looking civil war to decide who’d be the ultimate KOM winner, Soler going solo twice to claim maximum points, only for Vine to sneak the very last points on offer to win the prize by… two points. Of course.
And finally to Enric Mas, the most important Spaniard of the day. He’s been refreshingly bold and daring this Vuelta, but he let his inhibitions take control on the most decisive of days. 2:20 behind Roglič and still 26 seconds shy of O’Connor in second, this was a day for Mas to be especially brave. To put his team on the front, to soften Roglič and O’Connor up, to attack early. Above all, to try something different, to not just settle for yet another Vuelta podium place, but to reach for top spot. But no. Old habits die hard, and all that. The past can’t always be a predictor of the future though: Richard Carapaz, in fourth and 34 seconds adrift of third, has aggressive, audacious characteristics, and his palmarès is replete with big time differences. But even the Ecuadorian, the one expected to light the fuse, couldn’t be tempted.
So the outcome pleased only a select few. Stage winner Eddie Dunbar, of course, the Jayco-Alula winner scoring his second triumph of the race, but mostly an untested Roglič and O’Connor. The Australian, Mas and Carapaz have similar time trialling abilities, and thus the first four after the closing TT in Madrid on Sunday will probably remain unchanged: providing he doesn’t fall ill overnight with the same stomach virus, Roglič the winner (again) by almost three minutes; O’Connor holding off Mas by 11 seconds to secure his maiden Grand Tour top-three; Mas making it a fourth visit to the race’s podium; and Carapaz outside looking in at what could have been. The greatest opportunity to change the GC has now passed. Unless that pesky virus has the final, cruel, uninvited say.
