FIRMLY PLACED WITHIN THE BEST. Spaniard Enric Mas has consolidated over the past two years as one of the most consistent stagerace competitors in the world, especially in three-week Grand Tours. His solid 2020 results -5th overall in both the TDF and La Vuelta- were continued in 2021 with another top-ten finish in the ‘Grande Boucle’ -he was 6th, performing on par with the strongest on the final mountain stages– and a second place overall in Santiago, behind Primoz Roglic, in La Vuelta. Before that, the Artà native claimed his long-desired first win in Blue colours – he did so at the Alto de La Reina, end of the toughest stage in the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana.

TOP-LEVEL WINS. Other than his two podiums in La Vuelta, Enric has already some prestigious WorldTour wins to his palmarès, in the Itzulia -he won in no less than the Santuario de Arrate-, the Tour of Guangxi -took GC honours at the last edition to date, 2019- or the Vuelta a España, beating all race contenders atop La Gallina en route to his first second-place finish.

THE BEST SCHOOLS. Mas’s class and quality cannot be talked through without mentioning the two structures which saw him grow before taking the WT leap. At the Fundación Alberto Contador -whose famous backer doesn’t doubt one bit about mentioning Mas as the biggest Spanish prospect-, the Mallorca native honed in on his racecraft before jumping into Patrick Lefévère’s boat: first with its development team -Klein Constantia, where he notched up the GCs of Alentejo and Savoie + a 2nd place overall in the hellish Valle d’Aosta-, then with now-called Deceuninck.