Enric Mas, Carlos Rodriguez and Juan Ayuso – the Spanish trio keeping Remco Evenepoel on his toes at La Vuelta

It’s been a while since Spain had three riders in the top five of a Grand Tour. But the host nation enters Monday’s second rest day of La Vuelta with two stage wins already in the bag, Enric Mas the best placed rider behind the red jersey, and debutants Carlos Rodriguez and Juan Ayuso looking mature beyond their years (which, combined, still makes them younger than compatriot Alejandro Valverde).

Ever since Alberto Contador retired one day after his farewell win on the Alto de l’Angliru with a fifth place in his final Vuelta, Spanish fans have had very little cheer in their own race. In cycling, full stop.

Mas may have twice finished runner-up since Contador hung up his cycling shoes, but the general feeling is that Spain – quite like fallen giants Italy, in many respects – are a nation in flux: its glory days in the rear-view mirror, and hardly any sunshine on the horizon.

As if to underline Spain’s waning powers, the man who brought so much cheer for so many years is finally signing off. The impending retirement of Valverde will call time on the long career of the only man alongside Contador who has won La Vuelta in the past 16 years.

Twice a runner-up in his home tour, Valverde’s Movistar team-mate Enric Mas has never really looked like he could go one better and stand on the top step. A conservative climber who lacks the explosiveness of his predecessors Contador, Valverde and Joaquim Rodriguez, Mas has just the single stage win from 2018 and is not exactly a rider who excites and enthralls.

For all Mas’ limitations, however, the Spanish “fans” who booed and harangued him earlier in this Vuelta should take a hard look at themselves. What is the sport coming to when a consummate professional is abused for simply doing his job – and doing it well?

After all, Mas remains the closest challenger to Remco Evenepoel after the first full week of this Vuelta. The 27-year-old may have dropped to 1’12” behind the Belgian – a deficit which will almost certainly grow quite considerably after Tuesday’s time trial – but his experience and ability in the high mountains makes him, at last on paper, just as much a contender for the overall win in Madrid than a young star who has yet to ride deep into the third week of a Grand Tour, let alone do so with the added pressure of the leader’s jersey on his back.

And if Mas lacks that certain je ne sais quoi that gets fans out of their seats, then the raw unpredictability and youthful exuberance of his compatriots Rodriguez and Ayuso could help to pile the pressure on the current race leader.

Rodriguez, 21, has emerged as the best placed rider from Ineos in this Vuelta after Richard Carapaz’s early woes, Pavel Sivakov’s troubles on Saturday, and Tao Geoghegan Hart’s crash ahead of the finale on Sunday. His first pro win came back in April in Stage 5 of the Itzulia Basque Country, where he beat the likes of Evenepoel and Mas. Rodriguez then soloed to glory in the national championships in June.

Two years his junior, Ayuso, the youngest rider in the Vuelta, is a sensation with brilliant results from the junior ranks who won his first pro race – the Circuito de Getxo – just weeks before his Grand Tour debut at the Vuelta. So good a prospect is Ayuso that many believe he could become an even better rider than team-mate Tadej Pogacar. UAE Team Emirates are certainly convinced of his impending stardom: they offered him a five-year contract in 2021 – an unprecedented deal for someone so young.

Neither Rodriguez nor Ayuso was meant to lead their teams at this Vuelta, but both now stand head and shoulders above their team-mates in Spain: Rodriguez over three minutes ahead of Sivakov and Ayuso almost two minutes clear of Portugal’s Joao Almeida.

After two years without a Spanish stage winner in any Grand Tour, it took Ayuso’s team-mate and compatriot Marc Soler just five stages to end that run this August, with Cofidis veteran Jesus Herrada adding another two days later.

Mas, Rodriguez and Ayuso have what it takes to add more wins for the host nation in the second half of this Vuelta. Better still, it is this Spanish trio – rather than the ailing Primoz Roglic – who look more likely of putting up a fight in the face of Evenepoel’s emerging dominance.

Evenepoel will hold an even more commanding lead in this race after Tuesday’s 30.9km time trial to Alicante. But he, too, has lost a key domestique in Pieter Serry. Five more summit finishes and the high-altitude stages in Sierra Nevada will test the red jersey credentials of Evenepoel and Quick-Step to the max. And after so long in the doldrums, it’s Spanish riders who could well swoop.

Of course, we shouldn’t get too carried away. The race is not even halfway through. Look beyond Mas, Rodriguez and Ayuso in the GC and you have Valverde, David de la Cruz and Luis Leon Sanchez – riders either retiring this year or on their way out soon.

What’s more, there have been three Spanish riders in the final top 10 on three occasions since Contador retired – in 2018, 2019 and 2020 – and that was hardly something to shout about from the rooftops.

But in two debutants with a combined age of less than one Valverde, Spain has a lot to be excited about. Ayuso and Rodriguez could well prove themselves to be those so-called generational talents in the same mould as Pogacar, Evenepoel and Egan Bernal. Meanwhile, Mas is a steady Eddy who could well have those booing fans cheering his name come Madrid.

– – –