Tiberi was riding the best Grand Tour of his career when temperatures over 37°C stopped his body outright. «The body said stop, the mind wanted to keep going but the body stopped and I couldn't do anything» he said afterward. This is a route with seven summit finishes and 58,000 meters of climbing pushed into the hottest weeks of the Spanish summer — designed for drama, not for the athletes riding through it. When race director Javier Guillén insists heat won't change where the Vuelta goes, he's choosing geography over the riders who just proved it can end a career-best ride in one stage.