A Red Tour for Enric Mas

The Spanish Movistar cyclist Enric Mas refreshes himself on the final climb of the ninth stage of the Vuelta a España, between Puerto Lumbreras and Alto de Velefique last Sunday.Manuel Bruque / EFE

The life of a cyclist, like that of an artist, are memories of great moments, of the joy and ecstasy that he felt one day when he pedaled and it seemed that he was going without a chain and looked at the world from above, and since then he always returns to hope to feel the same again one day, to be again.

Or, better, be better.

Enric Mas is only 26 years old but he feels rejuvenated.

It is Sunday.

Pedal hard.

He climbs towards the Velefique mountain with Primoz Roglic on the wheel (from time to time, the Slovenian, comes to give him a relief, but without much effort) and he does not notice the heat that overwhelms everyone, nor the wind so hot that it dries him the sweat;

he feels, he says, like a day in April three years ago, the day he attacked in the Tour of the Basque Country and Roglic is behind, and he suffers.

"Yes, it was a bit like that day," he recalls.

"Although I was far away in the general classification then, I no longer counted, and I escaped from far away, but, yes, it was Roglic, and he suffered behind ...".

More information

• Classifications of Vuelta a España 2021 Cycling, Stage 9 Puerto-Lumbreras - Alto de Velefique (188 Km) in EL PAÍS

• Calendar Tour of Spain 2021 in EL PAÍS

And he takes Superman López dressed like him, and the Colombian stays behind, despite himself, because, although the body asks him to go forward, and he feels strong for it, he has to be a good companion and appease the herd of rowdy goats who do not want him to go alone with Roglic, the first two in the general standings in La Vuleta, the two strongest, and then Mas also remembers another day of that same 2018 in which it was revealed to the fans that I wanted to see in him the heir that is always desired when a figure retires, the new Accountant who wanted to proclaim himself, and he climbed like him, always showing his teeth, his teeth so white, standing on the bicycle. It was in the Vuelta. In Andorra. In September. More is on the run with Superman.The last mountain stage and second place overall behind the winner, Simon Yates (absent in Velefique, replaced by his twin, Adam) are played at Col de la Gallina. More wins. Superman leans over.

These are the great moments of Mas's past, his two most important victories, but Mas, still so young, does not believe that they are even comparable to what happened on Sunday in Velefique, where he did not win the stage, and neither did Roglic. "It was a beautiful and new situation for me ... We were first and second overall, distancing the others ...", says Mas on the rest day, when the body requires only a few kilometers on the bike to loosen up and his head is agitated thinking that there are still 12 stages left, and that he is where he wanted, how he wanted, and wanting more. 28s behind Roglic, winner of the last two Laps and top seed for the third. “After many years of work I have managed to get here, at this point of form. Now we will see if the fatigue of the Tour respects me until the end of the Vuelta ”.

Among the top six finishers —Roglic, Mas, Superman, Haig, Egan and Yates, compressed in 2m 7s—, the Slovenian, retired from the Tour after the eighth stage, the Australian, who fell on the third day of the Tour, and the Englishman, in their first big of the year after winning the Volta in March, they are the freshest. Egan won the Giro in May and, for the first time in his career, rides two grands the same year; Superman sentenced for the Tour until the penultimate day and Mas finished the sixth la grande boucle.

Waiting for the flash, which will come, of the desired Mikel Landa, absent for now from the debates, but he is like that, and that is how he is loved, the Spanish fan praises the Mallorcan's flawless regularity - fifth and sixth in his last two Tours; second and fifth in the two previous Laps—, who hopes to add to the virtue of not failing the brilliance of the exceptional, the brilliance of the attacker who makes his way, which he showed so recently and which is necessary to reach the red badge. “We will have to play our cards. We'll see where ”, says Mas, who after a second week of heat and more wear and tear, with steep slopes in Malaga, Jaén and Córdoba, and heavy mountains in Extremadura and Ávila, dreams of a third of cold and even rain, for which even cries out, on the Cantabrian route, with lakes, Galician mountains and a day marked by all,the one of the great premiere of the Gamoniteiru, Thursday, September 2, the climb that completes with Lagos and Angliru, the Asturian triad so longed for by fans.

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