Salty MAL fans. I’ve criticized Superman for his stage 20 antics, but have always personally liked him as a rider. Before stage 20, I thought he’d turned a corner, as he and Mas had coexisted as well as could be expected.
From my outside perspective and with the benefit of hindsight, it looked to me like MAL was supposed to be the 1A at the TDF and Mas was supposed to be 1A at the Vuelta- hence why MAL wore #1 at the former and Mas at the latter. When Lopez couldn’t stay upright, Mas ended up being the only GC guy at the Tour, but was undercooked heading into the race with his eye on the Vuelta, where he was on good form. On top form, Mas is at least equal to Lopez as a GC rider if not a bit better due to his consistency, and after missing out on his TDF GC challenge, Lopez wanted to ride for himself on stage 20. Problem was after following Yates, he was losing time already and took it personally that the team wasn’t going to sacrifice Mas in the process.