On the high-speed, final descent of stage 9 of the Vuelta a España, Enric Mas (Movistar) came within a whisker of a major crash as the headwind caught his bike and the Spanish GC contender all but skidded off-course.
In a heart-stopping moment for TV viewers, cameras showed how Mas wobbled spectacularly to his right and looked like he would fall.
But luckily, the sudden distancing of the continuous crash barriers running parallel alongside the road running down the side of the mountain meant the Movistar racer had the space necessary to regain control of his bike.
Fifty metres before or after that point on the descent, a crash at high speed would have been inevitable for Mas. But instead, he could continue with a breakaway effort started on the Alto de Hazallanas, which saw him gain nearly a minute at one point on top overall favourite Primoz Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
Three times a runner-up in the Vuelta a España and second the day before at Cazorla, Mas was finally reeled in by the Roglič group near the finish in Granada. But while he said afterwards the near-crash had looked worse than it really was, he recognised he had been extremely lucky - and that his condition continues to bode well, too, for the rest of the Vuelta.
“I think on TV it looked scarier than it really was, basically the wind blew me off course,” Mas told reporters after stage 9.
“But just as well I didn’t fall and that that extra space with gravel next to the road was there, because it would have been a really nasty crash. I don’t know if it was the roads or the wind, but I had a few scary moments on the descents in general, particularly when I was off the front by myself.
“That particular one, I wanted to change my line and I went off course. Just as well that bit of gravel was there. I’m very thankful I didn’t fall.”
Overall, in any case, Mas recognised his Vuelta was going well to date. He was able to stick with Roglič both on stage 4 to Villuercas and at the second summit finish in Cazorla, and is currently running fourth overall, 4:35 back of race leader Ben O'Conner (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale).
“I’m pleased with the feelings than anything else,” Mas said about his unprecedented ability to drop Roglič in a mountain stage in the Vuelta. ”Finally my move was more interesting as a spectacle than gaining time, though if we’d had a summit finish today, it’d have been a different story. I just hope on finishes like at Lagos de Covadonga things work out differently.”
Mas recognised that with so many switches in the narrative in this year’s Vuelta a España, the race was wide open so far, and it was, he argued, “much more interesting than the Tour de France".
“I started the day with the aim of attacking but I didn’t know whether to go for it the first or the second time round Hazallanas," he said.
“When I saw there was a moment of weakness [in the peloton of favourites, I went for it. But the strongest on the climbs today was [stage winner] Adam Yates.”
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