Enric Mashead of Movistar and, in principle, his staff for the general Tour, hopes that his luck will change in the Vuelta a España, where he will confidently be among the best because, if not, he assures, put a “cross” on it by its director Eusebio Unzue.
“I found sensations, but it was not an easy Tour for me. I hope to be better tomorrow and then I will start preparing for the Vuelta. I will have some vacations, but we need to put our feet up a little and immediately focus on altitude. “It’s non-stop,” he said.
Regarding his expectations at the Vuelta a España, the Balearic cyclist took the approach with humor. “If I don’t fight for the general classification in the Vuelta, Eusebio (Unzue) will put a cross on me. They pay me to do the general. Last year I couldn’t because of the fall and I didn’t recover in the Vuelta, I was sixth, which I didn’t expect.”
But he studies his state of form and cannot find an explanation: “There are difficult moments, before going to sleep you think, what is happening, what is not happening? There are times when sport smiles at you and there are 50,000 bad days for one good one.” “Muscularly it wasn’t me, we don’t know what happened in the first ones, but little by little the sensations are coming, let’s see what happens.”
Eusebio Unzuedirector of Movistar, commented that he could not blame the team “for its attitude from the beginning”, but acknowledged that the idea was to achieve at least a top 10 position with Enric Mas.
“The attitude of the team is beyond reproach. Nelson Oliveira tried it in Italy, Lazkano in the Galibier, Fernando Gaviria in the sprints, and now we also started at the front. In that sense I am satisfied, but it is true that we went through a phase. It’s a pity that Gaviria didn’t win,” said Unzue at the finish line of the Isola 2,000.
Regarding Enric Mas, removed from the general classification since the fourth stage, on the day of the Galibier, Unzue admitted that the plan was very different.
“We wanted to do the general classification on Enric, but something happened to the man, since the fourth stage in the Galibier it wasn’t him, we don’t know if he had a problem during the Tour, it wasn’t his usual performance,” he explained.
But he improved in the Pyrenees, “being among the best, a detail that allowed us to finish more calmly,” admitted Uzue.
“Enric has kind of reinvented himself by escaping, you can’t blame him for anything, the idea was the general, to be in the top 10, but he lost time and then calmly ran away. We did that from the middle of the Tour, so Enric could do Carapaz-type escapes,” he highlighted.
Source: La Verdad
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