Pogacar Won Three Stages and Then Crashed Out, and the Vuelta Runs From Almunecar to Loja on Friday

Stage 13 of the Vuelta a Espana runs roughly 193 kilometres from Almunecar to Loja on Friday, classified as a medium-mountain day.

Enric Mas of Movistar holds the red jersey by 1min 18sec from Primoz Roglic, who has won this race four times, with Felix Gall third at 1min 39sec.

Mas is leading a race that was not meant to be his. Tadej Pogacar won the opening time trial and two more stages inside the first week, then crashed on stage 8 and abandoned. A Vuelta with Pogacar in it has a settled shape and a predictable hierarchy. A Vuelta without him, with nine days still to ride, does not.

Matthew Brennan of Visma-Lease a Bike has three stage wins, the most recent on stage 11 after a lead-out from Wout van Aert. Bastien Tronchon took stage 10 in a bunch sprint few had forecast. Stage 3 was cancelled for weather.

The medium-mountain classification is the most awkward category for a team defending a lead. It is not severe enough to force the general classification riders to mark each other, and not flat enough for the sprinters' teams to want to control the day. That combination is exactly the profile a breakaway looks for, and it leaves Movistar to decide whether a lead of 78 seconds is worth spending a full day of domestiques on.

Roglic's record here is the other pressure. Four wins means four Vueltas in which he judged correctly when to attack, and a rider with that history does not need to take time back on a medium-mountain stage if he expects to take it later.

The second rest day is on Monday. The race finishes on 13 September.