“Everything has to change” - Vuelta champion Enric Mas already turns focus to Montreal World Championships
CyclingTuesday, 15 September 2026 at 17:30
Enric Mas had to wait years, come through difficult moments and slowly rebuild confidence he had once lost before finally achieving the biggest goal of his career. At 31, the Spaniard has now won the Vuelta a Espana, a victory which has allowed him to close one chapter and look ahead with a very different feeling. His attention is already beginning to turn towards the Montreal World Championships.
“I don’t know if it will change my life, but I feel more at peace with the sport. So many years trying to achieve it, and now that I have, it does change you a little,” Mas admitted in an interview with Spanish newspaper AS.
The victory came after a particularly demanding season and a recovery process that stretched over several months. Mas recalled spending “almost four months unable to do any sport”, a period which ultimately gave him the chance to reset.
“It did me good to have a few quiet months and start again. It was incredibly difficult to get back into shape and return to 100 per cent, and almost a year later it has arrived. I spoke about it with my coach, that it would take us a year to get back to 100 per cent, and that’s how it turned out,” he explained.
Enric Mas took the first Grand Tour win of his career
A year to get back to his best
According to Mas, the hardest part of that process came between January and the Giro d’Italia. “I think it was from January until the Giro, that was the hardest part,” he said.
The Spaniard believes peace of mind played a major role in helping him rediscover his best level. “I haven’t seen many different things, but I have been very calm since after the Giro, and that really helped me a lot. That was the most important thing. Having mental calm throughout all this time is what helped me most.”
His recovery also demanded patience. “Yes, it came several months later, but it was worth waiting all this time,” he said.
Mas also refused to speculate over whether the procedure to treat a varicose vein had contributed to his improved performance. “That’s impossible to know. The numbers I achieved at this Vuelta are my numbers. It’s not that I was able to perform better because I had a varicose vein removed or not. The truth is we’ll never know because it’s impossible to calculate.”
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“I would have signed up for it”
Even Mas had not expected his season to end quite like this. “I would have signed up for it,” he admitted with a laugh. “You never expect something like this, but it happened.”
He also placed his success in the wider context of how much professional cycling has changed in recent years, particularly with younger riders establishing themselves earlier than before.
“Cycling has evolved a lot since COVID. Everything has changed enormously and there are more and more promising riders who are already established and performing so well,” he said.
Mas' own career has followed a much longer path. “I got my first Grand Tour podium at 23 years old, at the 2018 Vuelta, and I’ve spent many years fighting and working, and in the end, at 31, I’ve achieved it.”
Family support through the difficult moments
Mas also gave considerable credit to his family for helping him through the most difficult periods of his career. “Everything. They’re the ones who put up with me every day. The nerves when things aren’t going well, the highs and lows when there are crashes, this year’s Giro, waiting so long to get back into shape... The people who mainly live through all of that are my family,” he explained.
Those difficult years have also shaped the rider who finally reached the top step of a Grand Tour podium. “The people who know me know that I try to work at 100 per cent, I try to do everything I can, and that’s how it has been throughout all these years. There have been setbacks, some bigger than others, but we’ve been able to come through them.”
Now, after so many months of work, the fatigue is beginning to catch up with him. “I’m tired, really tired. The same day I celebrated with my family, the team and friends, and yesterday it was time to travel home to Andorra, where I arrived in the afternoon. It was time to unpack and be with the family,” he said.
The deeper physical comedown has not arrived yet, although Mas knows it will. “I haven’t had the crash yet, but I will. After one-week races you have a few days where you’re down, and here, after a Grand Tour, which is 21 very intense days of racing, the body has to recover and the only way to recover is by sleeping.”
Aitana remains a special memory
Although the overall victory is the biggest result of his career, Mas still singled out his win on Aitana as one of the most meaningful moments of the race. “I think the victory on Aitana was more beautiful. In the battle I had with Tadej at the finish I was second, and on Aitana I was able to take the victory. Aitana will always be special,” he said.
The race changed dramatically after Tadej Pogacar's crash and subsequent abandonment, something Mas readily acknowledged. “Without Pogacar, the race changed. We already know who he is and what he does in every race he goes to.”
He also accepted that Pogacar's absence opened the race up for everybody else. “With Tadej’s misfortune, the race changed a lot. It helped make the race more open and made the fans believe in us, and that’s how it turned out.”
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Montreal already on the horizon
After years spent chasing a Grand Tour victory, Mas can now look ahead from a very different position. “I don’t know if it will change my life,” he repeated, “but I feel more at peace with the sport.”
For now, the priority is recovery, time with his family and allowing the achievement to sink in. The next target, however, is already waiting.
The Spanish national team will soon turn its attention towards the Montreal World Championships, and Mas knows that will require a complete reset. “That’s it, but you have to change it, because when you go with the national team, everything has to change.”
Juan LarraCycling Journalist
Juan Larra is a writer for Cyclinguptodate and editor-in-chief of Ciclismoaldia, where he has played a central role since its inception. Under his leadership, the website has become a trusted source for professional cycling coverage, offering in-depth analysis, news, and feature stories.
A sports journalist with over 20 years of experience, Juan earned his degree in Journalism from the University of Seville in 2007. He began his career covering a wide range of sports—including football, basketball, Formula 1, MotoGP, tennis, and cycling—for platforms such as the official La Liga app, Vodafone and Movistar websites, NBA Blogdebasket, and Cadena Cope, honing his skills in writing and editorial management.
In addition to his work at Ciclismoaldia, Juan contributes to Cyclinguptodate and serves as editor-in-chief for the tennis-focused site Tenisaldia. Throughout his career, he has conducted exclusive interviews with cyclists and sports figures, provided detailed analysis of competitions ranging from local Spanish races to major international events, and acted as a special correspondent at prestigious races including Paris-Roubaix, the Tour de France, and the Vuelta a España.
Juan’s combination of experience, expertise, and direct access to athletes has established him—and the platforms he leads—as authoritative voices in professional cycling.
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- all the top riders will take his place, gall is a Podium contender. Ayuso has talent. back to back GTs are torture unless named Pogi/Jonas and he is getting sick. Need different team where he is valuedabstractengineer15-09-2026
- Thanks for your reply. But your view of all these things is just so different from mine that maybe we should just agree to disagree!Hills3315-09-2026
- MrMM, you aren't necessarily wrong about any of your comments, flying too close to the sun, some recklessness, mixing it up with the sprinters, and so on. But, those characteristics are exactly what make watching him interesting to many people. Even when he's dominating, he's often pushing himself (and the situation) to a place that is a little past comfortable. That he gets away with it so often is amazing, that he got unlucky in this situation is unfortunate.RidesHills15-09-2026
- Who or what is Mou? I don't visit this site but I get the impression he's somewhat infamous here.megasmacky15-09-2026
- But they didn't and Mas was clearly the second best in the Vuelta. We have to live in the here and now, the reality of the race. Second best between guys who are less than 1% apart in ability always comes down to form. And in the Tour, this year Jonas was the second best rider in that race, to deny this is to deny reality.awp15-09-2026
- What a weird thing to say. Second best considering only one person who didn’t finish but not anyone else who didn’t. Had Paul, Jonas, Florian, Juan, Isaac and whoever else done stage 1 and no more, would you rewrite that?Mistermaumau15-09-2026
- yes, was thinking the same - this headline tells me he is already trying to usurp all controlmij15-09-2026
- Wout& Remco both in shape without earpieces? Am curious to see who will work for who from what point on. Unlike some have said, there were huge problems between the two in past national team competitions. Let’s hope that’s all behind them as they say it is and doesn’t reappear during the race if it unfolds with an unexpected scenario.Mistermaumau15-09-2026
- The difference is that Pellizzari, Piganzoli and Tiberi won't give del Toro any gifts
Rafionain-Glas15-09-2026 - I think you could have found a better adjective than spiteful. If you remember, it is I here who over the years warned someone was flying too close to the sun, going to run out of luck (he should have realised he was having) at some point, etc. I would (and) have said the same thing to my kids when they were overconfident in situations or their abilities, it has nothing to do with my personal feelings towards a person, especially here where it is not intended for him but more his followers who took on that same confidence thinking nothing could ever happen and there was no need to consider that. How many times has he now in retrospect said, I should have listened/paid more attention? Like I’ve said, if they were unique occasions with some big goal on the line or an irretrievable gap to avoid, it would be understandable and nobody would blame his unnecessary risk taking but many times it has nothing to do with that. Remember the Giro when after a few stages he thought he had to start mixing it with the sprinters at the finish line?Mistermaumau15-09-2026
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