Enric Mas had a turbulent 2022 season (Image credit: Sprint Cycling Agency)
Enric Mas finished the 2022 season as the Vuelta a España runner-up behind Remco Evenepoel and the Lombardia runner-up behind Tadej Pogačar . Looking back on his 2018 breakthrough and his steady – if unspectacular – showings since, it felt like a coming-of-age, a sign that he could be on the cusp of the world’s very best in 2023.
But what made this late-season rise so extraordinary are the depths to which he plummeted during the summer.
"It was a disaster," Mas says repeatedly during an off-season interview with Cyclingnews .
"The Tour de France ? Best to erase it from my memory because from start to finish it was horrendous."
There was nothing wrong with Mas’ form at the Tour, at least not physically. Uphill, he was was fine. The problem was going down.
‘It felt like Ineos saw some stats rather than me as a person’ – Geraint Thomas interview I race on instinct and I’m not going to change – Tadej Pogacar interview ‘I kept on racing because of the ban’ – Davide Rebellin’s three decades in pro cycling Jonas Vingegaard: Defending the Tour de France is hard but I’m up for the challenge Detailing his woes, what emerges is a classic case of the ‘yips’ – that infamous sporting affliction that leave athletes incapable of performing even their most basic of routines. Like a golfer’s hand suddenly wobbling when putting away a simple four-footer, so Mas […]
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