Tadej Pogačar has downplayed a potential lack of hydration playing a role in Enric Mas catching him on stage 6 of the Vuelta a España, after a rare mistake saw his solo move fail to come off.

Attacking away solo on the last climb, it looked for all money like Pogačar was going to ride the final 24km on his own, but 4km later it was Mas who had shockingly ended the chances of that by bridging across at a rapid rate of knots.

Time gap confusion and communication from UAE Team Emirates-XRG meant the race leader didn’t actually know the Spaniard was coming across – explaining why the catch looked so spectacular – but by the time they reached the finish for a sprint á deux – which Pogačar unsurprisingly still won despite maybe showing a rare sign of weakness – he was grateful for the Movistar rider’s presence.

“When he passed me, I was a little bit shocked. Then I was just happy to be with him in the last 10km into the headwind, because I had no water and it was nice to have a companion with me,” said Pogačar.

Pogačar was spotted taking a last bottle 26km from the finish as Pablo Torres completed the last lead-out on the Puerto El Bartolo climb, but he poured most of it over himself for the cooling effect. He then took a final few toots of the bidon before discarding it and riding the last 24.5km without one.

Once he avoided near disaster on the descent and rode with Mas to hold off the chasers, Pogačar was seen on the radio several times, looking around, and eventually taking a gel in the last 11km with no support coming.

The world champion revealed after the finish that he had requested water from one of the in-race cars near the front of the race, but was denied.

“When we came to 15k to go, I asked for the bottle, for water, but there was no response from the commissaire or organisation car, so I was a bit disappointed there, because we race in such heat,” said Pogačar in his post-stage press conference.

“If you don’t have a bottle in the last 15-20 minutes, it’s a big pain in the ass.”

Looking at the official communiqué from stage 5 the day before, it detailed how “For stage 6, the feed zone will be open from kilometre 10 and will end 20 kilometres from the finish.” This explains why the bottle he got before the climb was the last one – it was the final feed zone where teams were allowed to position soigneurs.

Due to this, the majority of riders in the top 10 of stage 6 actually raced the finale without any bottles, but his point about the heat still stands, with high temperatures and extreme weather often seeing organisers make adjustments to the rules around feeding during a stage.

Asked to clarify further at the start of stage 7 on Friday, Pogačar stated that Mas catching him was purely down to the lack of information, and that he was “fine” even without any water.

“Yeah, I was counting on that even if it’s a small group or we’re in front that we could get water from the neutral service, but apparently it was 20km to the finish not allowed feeling, so I did a mistake and was without bottles,” he told Eurosport.

Did a lack of hydration play any role in the catch? “No,” Pogačar said, “I did not get the info that Enric was so close behind. On the climb itself I was still fine without any water or bottles on the bike; I just wanted one in the last 15-10km to go.”

In the end, Pogačar simply went without, and Mas joining up with him prevented any minor dehydration concerns setting in for the race leader, who gained more than 45 seconds on all of his rivals bar the Spaniard. But the question remains: how big of a mistake could it have proved if there was another climb?

Even with his almost complete palmarès, Pogačar hasn’t been without mishaps in the finale of races when it comes to fuelling and hydration, with even the best rider requiring the very best intake of water and carbs to ensure he can perform.

Near misses and previous mishaps

Pogačar’s propensity to win with longer and longer solo moves has somewhat returned cycling to a state unseen since the days of Eddy Merckx and Fausto Coppi, but he hasn’t always been like this – his biggest raids have mostly come after a refining of his (very few) shortcomings and a change of coach to Javier Sola in 2024.

This included fuelling, heat-adaptation, his diet, and the team’s in-race hydration and cooling strategies, with bottles and keeping the Slovenian topped up on all fronts proving vital during his major targets.

One of his most famous fuelling errors came on stage 11 of the 2022 Tour de France, when a complete onslaught of the course by Jumbo-Visma for Jonas Vingegaard saw Pogačar attacked and isolated for more than two hours straight. When they reached the Col du Granon finale, he had barely been able to steadily fuel and paid the price as the Dane left him behind.

When he came back in 2023 to try and reclaim the title, Vingegaard again came out on top after Pogačar’s now iconic words of “I’m gone, I’m dead” were uttered on the lower slopes of the Col de la Loze. Completely cracking, he could barely explain it as more than an ability to absorb energy: “I tried to eat as much as possible but nothing went to my legs,” he said. “Everything stayed in my stomach.”

In 2024, a similar situation to yesterday’s Vuelta stage occurred en route to Le Lioran again at the Tour, where he was caught by Vingegaard having attacked away solo and been 35 seconds ahead. And on that occasion, unlike Mas, he knew the Dane was coming.

It was speculated as to whether or not it was the fuelling that had come back to bite him, with former Danish rider Michael Rasmussen questioning UAE’s strategy on X, saying “Even a Ferrari can’t run without fuel. When do they learn it at UAE?” after Vingegaard caught back to him and beat him in the sprint, suggesting how a lack of sugars could have been the cause.

After Mas caught back to Pogačar on stage 6, Rasmussen was having deja vu, again taking to social media to say “Flashback to Le Lioran TDF2024,” before echoing his earlier Ferrari and lack of sugar comments. Though Pogačar’s likely honest comments have since been seen to have denounced this theory, with the lack of correct time gap info making sense and his final sprint not looking like one of a rider out of gas.

Pogačar also almost came unstuck during a long solo at Il Lombardia in 2023 when he started cramping in the final 20km, and at Amstel Gold Race last year, Remco Evenepoel and Mattias Skjelmose chased him down before the Dane won the sprint.

What’s certain is that these examples are the exceptions to the rule, highlighted by how these failed solo raids are heavily outweighed by his successes, but they do confirm that he isn’t invincible.

Speaking about that iconic Granon bonk during this year’s Tour and what he’s changed since then, he gave massive credit to how UAE had revolutionised much of their nutrition, cooling, and in-race bottle usage in the past four years.

“I think one of the biggest changes that we could do as a team is the organisation around the feeding and having a really good hydration and nutrition, because this Tour is hellish hot, and for sure my body temperature is probably cooler than it was in 2022 or any Tour before,” he said, after several 40°C days at the start of the race.

“We really keep focused on cooling down and I think that’s a big difference, and just planning, organisation, and motivation for the next days – it’s a big difference from what it was in ’22.”

Whether or not Mas catching up to Pogačar actually showed any warning signs or that it can simply be put down to an information error likely won’t become clear until the next ultra-high energy expenditure stage, but for his competitors, there is at least a potential chink in his armour.

The rest of the Vuelta is going to be raced in hot conditions in southern Spain, and UAE will be desperate to never leave their star leader without water whenever he needs it.

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