TakeVueltalast week
Enric Mas leads the Vuelta a España 2026 by 1:18 over Primož Roglič, with five more riders inside four minutes. This isn't a depleted field limping along without its favourite—it's proof the Vuelta was never a one-man race, just a race Pogačar's margin was hiding.
Before stage 8, Pogačar's 3:50 buffer flattened the story into a coronation. One crash later, Roglič, Felix Gall, Sepp Kuss, Oscar Onley, Richard Carapaz, Mattias Skjelmose and Harold Tejada are all within four minutes of Mas—seven riders with a real case, not a token gesture at the podium. Gall's second place at the Giro d'Italia 2026, just 5:22 behind Jonas Vingegaard, says the depth was always there. Pogačar's dominance didn't erase the competition; it just made everyone else's ceiling invisible.
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