Enric Mas, from the victory in the Vuelta to returning Spanish cycling to the podium of monuments

While Paul Seixas rightly monopolizes the honors for his brilliant triumph this Saturday in the Tour of Lombardythe second position of Enric Mas. In a memorable end to the season, the Balearic cyclist once again confirmed this Saturday that he is among the best cyclists in the world.

A few days ago Enric Mas returned glory to Spanish cycling in the Vuelta a España twelve years after Alberto Contador’s triumph. That one, in 2014, had been the last in the Spanish round, but none had arrived in a grand stage tour since the 2016 Giro d’Italia also achieved by Pinto.

The situation in the sights It’s not very different. You have to go back almost a decade to find the last triumph of the great Alejandro Valverde (2017)in a Liège-Bastogne-Liège that for years seemed like their second home garden with four wins. Since then the victories have been resisted and the truth is that the podiums had arrived in dribs and drabs.

Since that triumph of the Murcian, only himself (second in the 2019 Giro de Lombardia) and a Enric Mas second and a Mikel Landa third in the 2022 Giro de Lombardia after the dominating Tadej Pogacar, they had managed to step on the podium of one of the biggest classics in world cycling. Therefore, Enric Mas’s podium this Saturday in Lombardy also served to break that gap.

They are already two second places in monuments for the Balearic Islandsonly surpassed by the Slovenian four years ago and only beaten this Saturday by another giant in the making, Paul Seixas. But he was brave, he went out on Giulio Ciccone’s wheel when the time came and won the battle from behind, with an imperial Frenchman in the last climbs of the day.

His podium in Lombardy, therefore, culminates a brilliant season for Mas, who has established himself as the great visible head of Spanish cycling. Enric also joins the select group of Spaniards who have managed to repeat podiums in monuments. There are only eight throughout history: Valverde, the pioneer Miquel Poblet, Joaquim Rodríguez, Óscar Freire, Juan Antonio Flecha, Samuel Sánchez, David Etxebarria and, now, the cyclist from Artà.