With a cheerful cadence, sitting elegantly on the bike and with firm pedal strokes, he performed an exciting time trial at the opening of the Vuelta, less than 30 seconds behind Pogacar, the stage winner, now the great absentee. “Yes, he did a great test, but then…”, they concede from his team. The but, of course, is not negative, although it is unsettling because when the mountains of Andorra arrived he lost 22 minutes at the first opportunity. Carlos Rodríguez (Almuñécar, Granada; 25 years old), once again, still does not feel himself after two complicated years. “For whatever reason, the legs are not going this season at the key moments. My body responds as if it had a limiter on. But well, we will try to remove it as this Vuelta goes on and be able to contribute more to the team,” resolves the cyclist, who in the eighth stage, on the way to Xeraco, had two collisions that, however, did not take him out of the race. “They are risks of the peloton, hazards of the trade that one never knows when they will occur,” he suggests. For him, may it not be so.
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Not long ago, in 2023, Rodríguez showed the world with a Tour stage victory in the demanding Morzine mountain, capable of dropping Pogacar and Vingegaard, fifth at the end of the Grand Boucle. A feat that earned him a renewal with Ineos when Movistar seemed his destination, a bet by the British team, a toast to the future. He responded the following season, with a win in the Tour de Romandía, a stage in the Basque Country, and another in the Dauphiné. But suddenly, everything changed, since he started with a string of injuries — the worst a pubis fracture, from which he says he no longer feels discomfort — and the loss of his father after a long illness. “Losing him was very hard, although we were able to enjoy his last moments together. Like everyone in life, I had to go through worse times, difficulties,” he manages to say with a trembling voice; “but it is obvious that I miss him because since I was little I always did everything with him. Now he is in memory, always present, and surely he will give me energy when it matters.” And he adds: “It has been a couple of complicated years personally and sportingly, with falls and injuries. I think all of this has been forming a burden that has been accumulating. Maybe the heavy weight of that backpack dragged me to the ground, but the important thing now is to get rid of it and for everything to return to normal.”
To achieve this, Carlos took refuge in a psychologist, external help to give him tools to know how to face life’s setbacks. “I worked for a while, although now less. It was a very useful tool because the mental aspect is very important and something that cannot be neglected, because if the mind is not in its place, the body will not be able to perform more,” he points out. Although he still does not find himself. Used to winning almost everything in the lower categories, the Spanish cycling prodigy along with Ayuso — the zoomers, as they were called — Carlos has not raised his arms crossing a finish line for some time. “These are complicated moments, wanting to do more, being aware that you are capable of doing more, and not being able to do it and missing that pedal stroke. But I do not lose hope because I am aware of what I am capable of doing. The moment will come, you just have to be patient.” And he adds: “You have to keep believing in yourself because the engine is still there. You have to finish tuning it and put it in good condition to perform.”
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But he still does not find himself and the team has made it clear to him, since this year they did not call him for the Tour — “It was a shock and that’s how the body felt it. It was not expected and of course it was hard,” he told As — and he has not arrived at the Vuelta as the team leader, but as Onley’s domestique. “One has to give the maximum wherever you are and contribute as much as you can; in this Vuelta Oscar is showing that he is strong and I, as I can give my best version, am supporting him so he can finish it,” he resolves with humility and a touch of resignation, although he praises the team because, he says, they always gave him their support. But he does not give up: “I still don’t know what is preventing me from giving my best version. If I had discovered it, we would be talking about something else. But you have to persist, review all the little details and see how we can recover Carlos, the real Carlos.” And he finishes: “I know I am there. It’s simply clicking a button.” Word of Carlos Rodríguez, a matter of time.
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