Enric Mas Has Two Minutes Six on Gall and the Thirty-Two Kilometre Test in Jerez Decides It
The Vuelta goes back to racing today with a flat stage to Palos de la Frontera after Monday off.
Enric Mas of Movistar leads the Vuelta a Espana on 49h 28' 12" after fifteen stages. Felix Gall is second at 2' 06" and Primoz Roglic third at 2' 10".
The race lost its favourite early. Tadej Pogacar won the opening time trial and abandoned after crashing on stage eight, with injuries to his clavicle and spine. Stage three was cancelled for weather. Bryan Coquard took the flat stage eight, Marco Brenner won stage fourteen in the mountains, and stage fifteen ran from Palma del Rio to Cordoba on 6 September before Monday's rest day.
Stage sixteen goes today from Cortegana to Palos de la Frontera, 186 flat kilometres. Stage seventeen on 9 September runs from Dos Hermanas to Seville over 189.2 kilometres, also flat.
The one that matters is on 10 September: a 32.5 kilometre individual time trial from El Puerto de Santa Maria to Jerez de la Frontera. Two minutes is not much of a cushion over that distance against riders who can hold a line.
Then stage nineteen on 11 September, 205.1 hilly kilometres from Velez-Malaga to Penas Blancas, and stage twenty on 12 September, 187 kilometres from La Calahorra to Collado del Alguacil, the last mountain day. Stage twenty-one finishes in Granada on 13 September over 99.4 kilometres.