The resurrection of Enric Mas: from hitting rock bottom to embracing glory in La Vuelta 2026
End of bad luck, of the ordeal that has been going through Enric Mas in recent seasons. The Vuelta 2026 has had the privilege of seeing a great rider rise from the ashes, a cyclist who years ago seemed to be the one chosen to lead a new generation of Spanish cycling and who Alberto Contador publicly named his successor within the framework of La Vuelta held in 2017. Without knowing it, ‘The Gunslinger’ carried the cyclist’s back Artà (Mallorca) with a heavy backpack that he had a hard time getting off.
Few, or almost none, bet because Enric Mas will shine, not because it will win, in The Return. First, due to the presence of Tadej Pogacarwhich forces the rest of the cyclists to fight to finish 2nd and then because this year, in which he decided to make a 180º turn in his racing program, things were not working out for him. Himself within the framework of the Cycling Tour to Catalonia He told MD with a small mouth, almost as if asking for forgiveness, that he was content with making a podium, without specifying a position, in one of the grand tours; that is, in the Giro d’Italia or La Vuelta. He did not want to raise expectations, accustomed to receiving too much criticism throughout his career, for his poor performance and his way of running, and accepting with resignation how fortune eluded him.
The clubs are the order of the day in cycling and, as they say, the Uncle del Mazo It shakes you when you get lost, and in the case of Further -whose mother is a nurse and his father a doctor- has sometimes gone too far due to his repetition. Enric began to take his first steps in the Sepelaco Cycling Club In 2012, after he chose cycling, he also liked basketball and skateboarding, the year in which he was proclaimed Spanish junior time trial champion in another of the paradoxes of destiny, in the Mallorcan’s career, of a runner who has always had a hard time winning, as he has always acknowledged, he has only seven victories in 14 years of career, in a discipline that has always been difficult for him and that has hindered a good part of his chances of glory. in general.
After passing through the Specialized- Alberto Contador Foundation From 2013 to 2015, he took an exponential leap in his career by running for the Klein Constancia of continental category in 2016, the year in which he already began to show the quality that was supposed to him by winning the Volta ao Alentejo, the Tour de la Savoie Mont Blanc or by finishing second in the Giro Ciclistico della Valle d’Aosta Mont Blanc. Afterwards he spent three years in the ranks of the Quick-Steparriving in 2019 to flirt with the Tour de France podium throughout many stages, in a first contact with the mother of all cycling races that raised many expectations, especially from the following year, when she was already running wearing the M for Movistar in the chest.
The pressure was a lot, in a team in need of success given its record and the social and sporting pressure to which it has always been subjected. Curiously, in 2020 he would achieve his best result in the Tour, in a door that he knocked on insistently but that never opened. The successes did not come and the nervousness increased, so much so that fear appeared. He abandoned the 2022 Tour officially due to Covid, but there was something else, something more since he left three weeks before the ‘Big Boucle’ suffered a fall in Dauphiné Criterium, after going to the ground earlier also in the Tyrrhenian and the Itzulia. Enric couldn’t take it anymore and admitted that he was afraid of going downhill, words that generated all kinds of comments. It was as if a footballer were afraid to score goals. Faced with the panic generated by the descents, Mas put himself under the orders of an expert like Óscar ‘President’ Sáizformer downhill biker, sports coach and who had already taught the Swiss team with his knowledge. The misfortune continued in 2023 with a fall in Lombardy and another in the Tour, in the first stage, in which he fractured his scapula.
I couldn’t lift my head and only found comfort in The Return. He fell into the well again in October 2025, when he underwent surgery for thrombophlebitis that he suffered in his left leg and that prevented him from performing as he wanted. With a new ‘leg’ and with his second child just a few months old, he was born in September 2025. Mas began a new season, in which after seven he gave up the Tour. I needed a change. He opted for the Giro, but he did not shine, which once again raised doubts.
Nothing suggested that Enric Mas resurfaced in La Vuelta, but there was no better scenario than his career, in which he had achieved three second places (2018, 2021, 2022) and a 3rd place (2024). The leader of Movistar showed an unknown, offensive version, at times even addressing the untouchable. Pogacar and as a result of his absence in the eighth stage Enric was honored with the leader’s red jersey. He started leading the race with 1 minute and ended up winning it with 2’15”, after demonstrating his climbing skills in the Alto de Aitana in a victory that tasted like glory. He ended up being the great dominator of La Vuelta and has ended up achieving one of those victories that leave a mark, which comes when the runner is already done, at 31 years old, and which will hopefully represent a turning point in his career and that of Movistar Teamwith whom he has a contract until 2029. Enric Mas has recovered his smile.
