Even Movistar's team boss was surprised by Enric Mas's bullish Giro d'Italia ambitions

Movistar arrived at the Giro d'Italia with grand ambitions and plenty of bravado. Two weeks later, the team has yet to win a stage and has been completely eliminated from the general classification battle. The tactical choices of team leader Enric Mas raised eyebrows even as he was targeting the final podium — and even his own team boss admitted he couldn't quite follow the logic.

Ahead of the start in Bulgaria, Mas was named team leader for his Giro debut, with lieutenants including Juan Pedro Lopez, Einer Rubio and Javier Romo tasked with supporting him in the hunt for the pink jersey. However, he completely cracked on Blockhaus. The chase for a stage win has also come up empty, with the eleventh stage as a painful highlight — a second place after tactics that were difficult to understand.

"As team leader he unfortunately has not reached the level we expected of him," Movistar team boss Eusebio Unzué told AS. "There was a lot of uncertainty after eight months without racing and following surgery on his leg last October. He had no problems in training, but we didn't know how he would respond to the big efforts — like Blockhaus, where we saw he wasn't at his best."

Why did Movistar continue to back the Spanish climber so firmly? "We knew there was a question mark over his performances after such a long absence, though we also had reason to believe he could compete with the best. I wouldn't call it a disappointment, but we would have loved to see him perform better. It's clear that we can no longer count on him for the general classification."

The pre-race announcement that Mas was targeting the podium and even overall victory had already triggered raised eyebrows at the time. "People have their reasons not to understand it. I didn't understand it either. He had reason to believe it himself, because he had trained very well. It was also a way for him to boost his own confidence. But the real test is the race itself, and there he unfortunately failed miserably."

Yet Movistar has not only reasons for gloom. Sprinter Orluis Aular came agonisingly close to a stage win on stage four after phenomenal team work, and riders like Einer Rubio and Lorenzo Milesi have been making a fine impression throughout. The reward has not yet come for the Spanish team, but there is still a week of racing to go.

In that final week, the mission is clear. "The objective now is obviously to win a stage. The team is working very well and we have had chances on many days," Unzué says. "We were close in Bulgaria, then with Orluis in Naples before the crash, and also with Einer, who is in top form, and Enric."