Enric Mas withstands a Primoz Roglic onslaught at Vuelta time trial, Stefan Küng peaks at the right time

Stefan Küng won the long time trial in the Vuelta a Espana on Thursday. The Swiss of Tudor was three counts faster than Callum Thornley of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. Enric Mas (Movistar) rode the time trial of his life and kept the red leader's jersey.

Mathias Norsgaard will be the first to start at 2:07 p.m., followed fairly quickly by Ethan Hayter, while riders such as Stefan Küng and Wout van Aert are expected to start before 4:00 p.m. They are among the fast riders with a shot at the stage win.

At the end, we’ll of course also be keeping an eye on the general classification contenders, led by podium favorites Primož Roglič, Felix Gall, and Enric Mas. Mas will be the last to start, at 4:55 p.m.

Mas holds a 2.06-minute lead over second-place Gall in the general classification, while Roglic trails by 2.10 minutes. The Slovenian rider from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, in particular, appears to be a threat to the Movistar rider in the red jersey.

Whilst Hayter took 35 minutes and 54 seconds in Jerez de la Frontera, the young Red Bull Scot, Callum Thornley, beat that time by 29 seconds just moments later. The 23-year-old speedster thus set the tone for team leader Roglic, whilst also demonstrating that his fourth place in the opening time trial in Monaco was no fluke.

Before 4.00 pm, all eyes will be on riders such as Stefan Küng and Wout van Aert. They are among the fast riders with a chance of claiming the stage victory.

At the end, we will of course also be looking at the general classification contenders, led by podium favourites Primož Roglic, Felix Gall and Enric Mas. The latter will be the last to start at 4.55 pm.

Mas holds a 2.06-minute lead over second-placed Gall in the general classification, whilst Roglic trails by 2.10 minutes. The Slovenian from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, in particular, looks set to pose a threat to the Movistar rider wearing the red jersey.

Ivo Oliveira slotted in between the two Britons, after which the first threat to Thornley came from João Almeida. The Portuguese rider from UAE Emirates-XRG hadn’t made much of an impact so far, but showed some signs of improvement ahead of the final two mountain stages. He finished six seconds behind Thornley.

Before 4.00 pm, all eyes were still on riders including Stefan Küng and Wout van Aert. The Swiss rider from Tudor did not disappoint and knocked Thornley off the hot seat by a margin of just 3 seconds, whilst Van Aert also lived up to his words: the Belgian went all out and was in contention for the win, but ultimately finished 20 seconds behind Küng at the finish in Jerez de la Frontera.

After Küng and Van Aert, the focus shifted to the battle for the general classification, with podium contenders Primož Roglič, Felix Gall and Enric Mas leading the way. Mas defended a 2.06-minute lead in the general classification over second-placed Gall, whilst Roglic trails by 2.10 minutes. The Slovenian from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, in particular, therefore looked to pose a threat to the Movistar rider wearing the red jersey.

We got an early indication of this at the first intermediate time check. There, Roglic gained 7 and 21 seconds on both Gall and Mas respectively, whilst it was already becoming clear that Küng was set to take the stage win in Jerez de la Frontera. By the first time check, the Swiss rider already had a ten-second lead over Roglic, the only rider who could theoretically still threaten him.

At the second intermediate point, the gap between Roglic and Mas stood at 37 seconds, in the Slovenian’s favour. Mentally, however, this was likely to the advantage of the Spaniard, whose deficit was estimated here and there at 1.5 minutes. It was not to be, then. Roglic eventually finished fourth, 19 seconds behind, whilst Mas came 12th, 52 seconds behind, and lost 34 seconds.