It's all in the eye of the beholder. In the last two summit finishes of the Vuelta a España, Primoš Roglic looked relatively subdued, but the home excitement sparked by Enric Mas' acceleration may have distorted his view of the race.

Roglic eventually lost no time to the man from Movistar in Kuitu Negru and Lagos de Covadonga, coming unceremoniously close to Ben O'Connor's red jersey in the process. With four stages to go, including the final time trial in his favor, Roglic was only 5 seconds behind O'Connor and 1:20 behind Mas. He is the de facto race leader and the favorite to win in Madrid.

Unlike Roglic, who consistently dominated his rivals on every climb during his last Vuelta victory three years ago, this time the Slovenian is cutting his cloth a bit more cautiously, which is not surprising given that he suffered a broken spine in July's Tour de France, forcing him to retire.

Stage wins in Pico Viluercas and Cazorla, not to mention a decisive victory in Puerto de Ancares on stage 13, were enough to keep Roglic content to just follow his rivals, and on some days he was forced to do so.

Patsy Villa, Red Bull-Borla-Hansgrohe's sporting director, said that Roglic was just trying to carry the race as far as he could. [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] 0]

Villa has been stressing since the beginning of this Vuelta the severity of the race's grand finale and the need to save something for the later summit finishes on the Alto de Moncalvillo and the Picon Blanco.

Meanwhile, O'Connor, who is currently wearing the red jersey, knows firsthand how Logrich picks his cues throughout the race. O'Connor praised Logrich, saying that some days he understands that his only job is to bring the race to a draw.

“I think in general his demeanor seems laid back, but I think he's pretty ruthless. He knows what his strengths are, and I think he's really good at limiting the days he doesn't get in his ball park.”

The stage to Lagos de Covadonga was a prime example of this, as Roglic did not appear to be at his best. O'Connor said, “But he was at his strongest on the other stages and made them count.”