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The ‘WorldTour’ Enric Mas, with a past at the Foundation, speaks with the junior team riders

While the competitive landscape begins to outline itself with some clarity, with a Tour of Besaya that would become the first test of the new calendar and with the confirmation that the Trofeo Fallas de Xátiva of the Spanish Cup will not be hosted, the junior team of the Alberto Contador Foundation continues to take advantage of new technologies to continue implementing new training experiences. If a few weeks ago the protagonist was Fernando Barceló from Huesca, on this occasion the guest of honour was Enric Mas from the Balearic Islands.

The cyclist from Artá, currently in a Movistar Team in which he stopped after passing through the Belgian structure of the Quick Step, spent three seasons enrolled in the different sports formations of the Alberto Contador Foundation. First a campaign in the junior team, in his first year of life (2013); then, two more years in an u23 formation with which he climbed to the podium and scored a victory in the demanding Vuelta al Bidasoa.

“Enric Mas was in our structure in our first year, he also went through the u23, then he jumped to the Klein-Constantia, a Belgian team affiliated to Quick Step, he showed his quality and jumped to the World Tour. Many of us have witnessed some of his great performances, like the stage in the Basque Country, the stage of the Vuelta in La Gallina… He is a young rider, but with a great reputation. Enric likes the pressure very much, he carries it well and manages it well and when one is that lucky, he can perform as he does”, remembers Guillermo Gutiérrez during his presentation.

Enric was interested in how the training and studies had been conducted during the confinement and did not leave any of the riders questions unanswered. Mas was asked by Antonio González from Soria which rider had surprised him the most within his current team. “Alejandro Valverde is very professional. He has impressed and surprised me, especially because of the naturalness with which he does everything. You learn a lot from him. You see him the same physically in summer or in winter, always fine”, he points out.

Regarding this advice that could mark him more, the Mallorcan recalled: “I remember when in 2015 I went to a concentration of Tinkoff. Alberto told me that nobody would give me anything, that I should always work very hard. And that resting, training and taking care of yourself are fundamental things for a professional cyclist. Those were words that I have always kept very much in mind since that day”.

Questioned by Andalusian José Luis Medina about the day he suffered the most on his bike, Mas recalled the Liège-Bastoña-Liège, a race in which he has competed in the last three seasons. “The last edition was very hard. Of the six and a half hour race, more than five and a half hours were run in the rain and cold. To the mileage and the hardness of the route, the cold. Everything came together a bit. I got to the finish line well, but it was a day that was very hard. In the Volta a Catalunya, a race that I have done three times and in which I take pace of competition, always there has been also some day that has cost me a little “.

“It is necessary to thank Enric for this time. For the boys it is a great opportunity, the whole honor, to possess one of the references of the current cycling as it is him. If we are objective, he is one of the best Spanish riders at the moment. For this reason we are delighted to have you here”, thanked the trainer Jorge Ramos.

(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)

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