Enric Mas makes history and brilliantly wins La Vuelta, Johannessen takes a spectacular last stage in Granada
Enric Mas has achieved what seemed impossible and for which no one or almost no one would have bet on last August 22 in Monacoeven more so with the presence of the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar. It seemed that The Return already had a winner from the day the five-time winner of the Tour de France It made official that he was going to be in the Spanish round in search of glory, to win the only three-week cycling grand tour that is missing from his record. The plan drawn up by UAE Team Emirates It was going as planned. He dominated the first seven stages with an iron fist, winning three of them and obtaining a wide margin that allowed him to ‘let go’ to start thinking about the future. Montreal World Championshipwhere he was looking for his third title in a row in a setting that he knows as the patio of his house.
But once it has been shown that in cycling nothing can be taken for granted, that misfortune is always present in any corner of the road, as was seen with the fateful fall of Pogacar during the eighth stage. Until this misfortune, which knocked out the Slovenian for the rest of the year, the runner who had stood up to the almighty was Enric Mas. The leader of Movistar Team He wore red for the first time in his professional career in the ninth stage and began to honor this jersey with a great victory in the Alto de Aitanain which it was quite a declaration of intentions.
A more plethoric Enric
From then on, Mas and his team dominated all the situations they produced in the remaining days. The Mallorcan controlled with solvency the movements of all his rivals, the Roglic, Gall, Carapaz and company, whose morale was eating away as the days went by. No one could beat Enric, who instead of going down went up, widening the gap with respect to his rivals and certifying this Sunday in Grenade a historic victory for him and his team, Movistar Teamin the fifth absolute victory in La Vuelta of the telephone team structure in all its denominations, after the victories of Pedro Delgado (1989, with Reynolds). Abraham Olano (1998, Banesto), Alejandro Valverde (2009, Caisse d’Épargne) and Nairo Quintana (2016, Movistar).
It had to be in The Return where Mas showed his best version, in which he had been second three times (2018, 2021, 2022) and third another time (2024). He recovered, because there were few who trusted him, given the irregularity of his sports career, dotted with inconveniences. Enric seemed destined to mark an era in Spanish cycling, to take the baton of Alberto Contador, but he could not take a step forward, either because his legs did not accompany him when he wanted or because misfortune knocked too insistently on his door, whether in the form of falls, depression or an operating room.
A series of misfortunes that he has left behind this Sunday, September 13, 2026. A day that this introverted runner, who has flown on the route of The Return feeling the very close warmth of the fans, something that I needed like any athlete or any person.
Today he let himself go as soon as the race got serious. There was too much at stake. He had waited too long to live this day to suffer a fall that would put it in doubt, in a beautiful final circuit of Granadawhich had to be completed four laps and which the organization, under pressure from the runners, decided to neutralize. Even in this, Mas has made history, who was proclaimed the winner 9.4 kilometers from the finish, giving himself in the remaining kilometers a hot bath of masses that rewards all the disappointments accumulated throughout his race.
