A Vuelta built with its hardest climbing concentrated in week one, then flattening considerably through weeks two and three, handed Pogačar a structural gift: pile up an unassailable lead before the race's chaos-making phases materialise. By the first rest day he could already have put the maillot rojo beyond reach of all comers — the third week offers only the Jerez time trial and the altered Sierra Nevada stage as realistic GC moments. When summits are stacked defensively rather than designed to invert results, rivals shift from attacking to loss-limitation. That is not a Vuelta; that is a countdown.