When Laurent Fignon won La Plagne in the 1984 Tour de France, he told reporters that he "marveled at the beauty of the Mayet glacier and looked back up the mountain to see how far behind Innot was." Vuelta a España leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) may not be as good a storyteller as the late Fignon, but he seems to share the Frenchman's admiration for the stirring scenery.

Asked for his thoughts on this race to the mountains of Asturias, Roglic focused on Monday's summit finish on Alto de la Cubilla, focusing on the natural beauty of the area rather than the difficulty of the climb itself.

"It's a beautiful mountain, like the Galibier in Asturias, and it's supposed to have great views," he said. So I'm looking forward to racing there."

Like Fignon during his crushing Tour victory 35 years ago, Roglic can already afford to enjoy the scenery. As the second week of the Vuelta draws to a close, he leads the overall standings by 2:25 over Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and more than 3 minutes over Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar).

There is still plenty of distance left from here to the final stage in Madrid, but it is beginning to feel as if only bad luck can prevent Roglic from winning the overall. The Slovenian has already crashed twice, once in the team time trial in the opening stage in Trevieja and again on the dirt road before the final climb in Andorra on stage 9, but he escaped a third crash in a group crash in the finale in Oviedo on stage 14.

The crash, which occurred 800 meters from the finish of a stage won convincingly by Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe), brought down a number of riders. Logric's Dauphine Valverde and countryman Pogacar crashed, but Mayo Rojo himself avoided crashing.

"I was a bit lucky. The races are always fast and crazy, so you need a bit of luck. I don't think I was involved in the crash, but I still missed the clip. No one likes to crash. We don't sprint in the sprinter stages, so for us it's about avoiding crashes and taking as few risks as possible."

"The last 50km were really fast. After all, I'm not a sprinter, so I tried to avoid this; the GC riders are just trying to stay safe. On the one hand, some riders take risks because they want to win the stage, and on the other hand, some just try to stay safe. It doesn't go both ways."

So far in the second week of the Vuelta, Roglic's dominance has been undisputed. His crushing victory in the time trial in Pau has widened the gap to the overall leader, and his dominance was reaffirmed in Friday's climb up Los Machucos, where he dropped all of his rivals except Pogacar. As evidence, the upcoming doubleheader in Asturias is not likely to cause him any discomfort, although he has not been scouting the stages.

Stage 15 will finish at the summit of Santuario del Acebo and include the climbs Puerto del Conio and Puerto del Pozo de las Mujeres Muertas.

"I don't know the climbs and this is my first time running the climbs. I just saw the profile. Especially tomorrow the last climb is very difficult.

"No doubt they will attack early on. It will be a race full of gas from the start. With the whole team, we have to be ready for that. I will do my best."