"I came in empty, I couldn't sprint" - Enric Mas waves goodbye to Red Jersey hopes on stage 19 of 2024 Vuelta a Espana

Primoz Roglic has seemingly all but officially confirmed the 2024 Vuelta a Espana after winning on stage 19's summit finish, gapping all his general classification rivals in the process.

Movistar Team's Enric Mas arrived at the finish completely empty. He attacked, was brave and for a while had threatened to chase down Roglic. In the end though, the Spaniard completely tied up, being overtaken by both David Gaudu and Mattias Skjelmose before the finish line.

"We knew that Primoz was going to act like this, he does very well in these kinds of stages, he won and took time, congratulations to him," Mas assesses post-stage. "We did a very good job, we took time from Richard Carapaz and Ben O'Connor, we are happy. I came in empty, I couldn't sprint. We will try tomorrow, we will have to act differently than we did today, there are 5000 meters of elevation gain, it will be different".

Tomorrow we come to a beastly stage, the queen stage of the Vuelta, with just 20 km of flat and a large number of passes including the brutal finish at Picón Blanco. With 6 climbs: two third, a second, a first, a second, a first, the flat kilometres and the very hard finish at Picón Blanco, it's not completely game over for Mas, but the Spaniard will need to put in a performance for the ages.