"I'm still excited to try and win" - Einer Rubio carries the flag of Movistar in Alpine queen stage

On the day Movistar Team lost Enric Mas who abandoned early into the stage due to knee problems, Einer Rubio carried the flag of the Spanish team. The Colombian was along with the eventual stage winner Ben O'Connor among the strongest man of the stage.

Alongside his Australian companion, they entered the decisive part of the Col de la Loze with more than 3 minutes on the favorites, but Rubio could not hold the pace of O'Connor. Despite a commendable effort, he was overtaken right at the end by Pogacar, Vingegaard and Onley.

Regardless of the outcome, he was proud of his performance and hopes to try again tomorrow, Friday, in what will be the last high mountain stage of the Grande Boucle 2025:

"For me it was a great stage, we've been looking for it since the beginning of the Tour, today we tried very hard, we fought very hard, super hard stage, I was there with the favorites fighting it, I'm very happy, with good feelings, the last super long pass, in the end I was caught in the last meters by the men in the general classification, I'll take a fifth place, proud of what I did, we'll try again tomorrow."

On the abandonment of his teammate Enric Mas, he lamented that the team car did not tell him anything: "I did not know, sadness too, Enric was not very well in recent days, cycling is a very hard sport, hopefully he recovers soon and can be at the Vuelta at one hundred percent."

Einer Rubio has been Movistar Team's most consistent rider at Grand Tours this year. He was eighth at the recent Giro d'Italia and the pocket climber certainly didn't disappoint with his performances also at the Tour de France.

Next to the 5th place today, Rubio also arrived 11th in another big mountain stage to Hautacam and 15th to Superbagneres. In both instances as one of the best men from daily breakaway. It brings up the question whether he could've competed for the general classification with so many pre-race favourites collapsing.