After all, it was a useful reminder, nothing more. The Vuelta a España is no slouch for Primoš Roglic. The Slovenian has won this race three times, but in each case there was turbulence. A day after taking the red jersey in Puerto de Ancares, Roglic had another scare in Villabrino on stage 14.

The peloton passed through Puerto de Reytaliegos and was returning from Asturias to Leon when Roglic noticed something wrong with his bike. He and teammate Daniel Martinez braked suddenly to a stop and immediately handed over their machines to push forward to the front again.

There were only a little more than 10 km to go to the finish - a fast downhill - but Roglic was as calm and collected as always. In fact, the television cameras of the organizers' broadcaster seemed more flustered by the accident than he was, focusing on Martinez waiting for a replacement bike rather than following Logrich's pursuit.

By the time Caden Groves held off Wout Van Aert to win in Villabrino, Roglic was safely back in the main peloton. [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 0]

His confidence must have been boosted by his commanding run in Os Anchales, where he steadily and relentlessly burned through Mas on the toughest climb of the day, at 15%. While O'Connor's two-minute reduction in the lead was Friday's headline news, Roglic's win by a minute over Mas and Richard Karapas may be just as significant in the overall story of the race.

“Still, I'd like something more,” Villa smiled. 'I think it's a good thing. We got time back from O'Connor, but we also brought time to third and fourth place in GC. It was a good day for us, but we still have a lot of work to do. The hardest part is yet to come.”

While the steady, shallow slopes of Puerto de Reytaliegos will not add to the overall competition, the route of stage 15 of the Vuelta a España may be the toughest leg of the race to date. After two ascents of the category 1 Alto de la Coradiera, the Vuelta returns to the summit finish of the Cuito Negru (18.9 km, 7.4%), a special category last attempted in 2012.

“The 1:21 difference in the red jersey seems like nothing, but it's still huge. [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]