Enric Mas was again the only rider to match Primoz Roglic’s acceleration on the last climb of stage 11 and climbed up to third place in the general classification of the Vuelta a Espana.
“For now, I see Roglic as an ally,” Mas said after the stage. “I think it will happen more often, as long as we have to make up time, because we both lost a lot of time to O’Connor”.
“The reality is that before the stage I was four and a half minutes behind. But luckily I am now back to four minutes, so let’s hope that we can reduce the gap little by little. That’s what we did today.”
“Let’s hope that every day will be like today, but that won’t be the case. O’Connor is a great rider and a very good climber, but we will keep trying,” Mas said.
Ben O’Connor is the first to recognize that this Vuelta a Espana is far from over after eleven days.
“It’s a battle, every single stage. Those punchy stages are tough for me if I’m not at my best, so hopefully, we’ll be back in the real mountains soon.”