The Tour de France is 3,404 kilometers long. Enric Mas's barely lasted 160 km. The Movistar leader was the only one of the 176 who started the race from the slopes of the San Mamés stadium who did not reach the finish line at Parque Etxebarria.
Misfortune struck the Balearic climber in the most mountainous edition in memory. He will not be able to reach the Pyrenees, nor will he shine in the Alps. In fact, he didn't even get to enjoy the crowds at the Pike Bidea, this year's first Category Two port. It will never be known if he could have been close to the greats.
It was not the first fall of this edition – the dubious honor went to the Norwegian Traen, rookie – but, with 22 km to go, in the descent of the Alto de Vivero everything, the preparation, the illusion, his tenacity and his determination to climb one day to the podium in Paris, it went to waste. A curve to the left and fall. He and Richard Carapaz went to the ground. The Ecuadorian, sore, got back on the bike and came 15 minutes behind the winner. But he never made the gesture.
Could not. "He has gotten up many times," recalled Sebastián Unzué, son of the team's manager, Eusebio. Yvon Ledanois was the first Movistar director who came up to him and saw that something was not going well. But he had a scratched jersey on his right shoulder. They called the doctors. Every time they touched his clavicle area, he hurt and made a face of pain. It was also closely verified by Chente García Acosta, who surely uttered his famous "Cagonsós" when he realized the magnitude of the tragedy. That strong blow and the pain in the scapula forced him to retire at the first exchange.
"It's a stick," Sebastián Unzué said, dismayed. “We arrived with confidence and expectations. Enric was in the best shape of his life ”, he assured.
The truth is that the Tour has been a source of doubts and bad experiences for Mas, whose best result is fifth place (2020). He has never brought him great joy either in the form of stages in his five participations. The last two ended abruptly since last year he did not finish it either. He did not start on stage 16. At the exit from Castelnau-Magnoac it was learned that he had tested positive for covid. So he was already more than 24 minutes behind Vingegaard.
The structure of Eusebio Unzué has had no luck with the early stages, since Pedro Delgado got lost in the streets of Luxembourg in the 1989 prologue, when he was the last to start, as the winner of the previous year. Perico became disoriented and arrived two minutes late at the exit ramp. He ended up losing 2m54s with Breukink and leaving a large part of his options to repeat the victory in Paris. He still was third on the final podium.
Another who knows the bitter taste and how cruel the start of the great stage race can be is Alejandro Valverde. The Murcian lived both sides. In 2008 he won the first stage in Plumelec and dressed in yellow. Nine years later, in the initial time trial in Düsseldorf, the goat's bike skidded in a curve and hit a fence that delimited the route. He fractured his tibia. "You have been preparing for a long time and falling and having to give up like this is difficult," reflected the former world champion, a guest on Teledeporte.
So, the team, which was already Movistar, was able to focus on working for Nairo Quintana, who had been tired of finishing second in the Giro. But now Mas was the sole leader. "Running out your bet in the first stage is very hard for the rest of your teammates," Valverde intervened. "You have to try to rebuild the team," said Patxi Vila, sports director. "You have to change the chip. We have a team to fight for many things ”, Sebastián Unzué abounded.
The problem is that Matteo Jorgenson, who debuted last year with a 20th place in the standings, has already lost 2m33s. "It's been a shitty day," summarizes the American, who witnessed the accident up close. “I was like three wheels behind Enric. He went off the road and flipped over,” he recounted. His first instinct was to put his foot down. "I stopped immediately because he was our leader." When Jorgenson resumed the march he could no longer catch up with the first group.
"You have to cross your fingers that there are no serious injuries and look ahead," ask the directors. For the team there are 20 stages left. But he will have to focus on the Tour of Spain after saying goodbye to the Tour. Agur, Tour.
