Roglic's Elixir of Happiness

Roglic, winner in Suances.Kiko Huesca / EFE

In the mountains and on the beaches, in the gloomy autumn light, under the frozen deluge and in the light of the late October sun that resists sinking into the sea, descending to the cliffs and returning uphill to the center of Suances, Every day, and every day more, La Vuelta is the video game that Roglic likes so much, the one about the Mutant Ninja Turtles punching each other with the colored Spider-Man, and they give and give hours and hours and nobody falls , and the one who falls gets up, and so are Carapaz and Roglic, who on the slope of Suances denied the specialists the right to win the stage, and Carapaz with his Amador launched the peloton from afar, looking for something in the dangerous curve , but it was Roglic who delivered the last punch of the day, and with a 3s lead plus the 10s bonus for his third stage win, he regained the leader's red jersey at equal times with Carapaz, but with better places in the 10 disputed stages.

Against the majority who proclaim that living is learning to grow old, and to die, the Slovenian is one of the select minority who believes that maturing consists of learning to be a child again, and he says so when he explains that he suffered so much on the Tour that he lost, that The stress of the day to day was so unbearable that he decided to turn his head around and think that the best thing was to try to have fun and be happy, and that since the Vuelta began, and he began winning it on the first day in Arrate, he is happy , cheerful and happy, and that every day he seeks that happiness, and, apparently, he only finds it by winning.

For Suances's victory at the end of a day that crossed Cantabria from East to West, skipping rivers and valleys one by one, Agüera, Asón, Miera, Pas, Besaya, Saja, Roglic was inspired by the video he saw the night before the triumph of the world champion Paolo Bettini in 2008. He came out with so much dynamite that both Guillaume Martin's start and the tension that Carapaz tried to maintain, who thought for a moment he was in Frascati, on the slope of the Giro of 19 in the one that Roglic sat before him for the first time.

More than half a Vuelta has passed and none of the secondary players who normally find their minute of glory in the Spanish race have yet had their chance.

This year, with hardly any competitions in Spain, they need him more than ever, his triumphant photo, his happy interview, his full illusion, and it does not seem that this weekend, that of Asturias traveled not through its valleys but through its mountains, they will find it.

It will be two days of full intensity.

On Saturday, Colladona, Cobertoria, San Lorenzo and final in La Farrapona, in the Somiedo Lakes, where there are bears, in 170 kilometers;

on Sunday, Mozqueta, Cordal and impossible Angliru in just 109 kilometers.

"And it will not only be Carapaz with whom he fights," warns Roglic, a fighter, who talks about the so combative boys of Movistar, of Valverde who, like him, seeks to return to childhood and at 40 he discovers almost hyperactive, with ants in the legs and head, of Enric Mas who sighs relieved because it will not be cold in these mountains and because they will also be stages of chained passes, much more adapted to his light pedaling.

And there, less than a minute away, Dan Martin, the Irishman who is always there even if he is not seen, and Hugh Carthy, the lanky cyclist (1.93 meters), patient and climber who made himself known to the world precisely in Asturias, winning in the Acebo and the Vuelta a Asturias four years ago, when he decided that he would grow little by little.

And he believes that at 26 years old, in 2020, the year in which surprising young people win everything, his time has come, that he will be the unknown English cyclist who wins the Vuelta.

Stage and general classifications