Vuelta a España leader Primos Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) said he is confident of defending his overall lead in the mountain stage, which awaits a summit finish on Machucos on Friday.

Roglic and the rest of the Vuelta a España peloton face three summit finishes in four days: after Los Machucos, last tackled in 2017, there is the Alto de Acebo in northern Asturias on Sunday and an unprecedented climb to La Cubilla on Monday followed by a second day of rest, with the final week taking place mainly in and around Madrid.

The mountainous stage in northern Spain will be the first tough uphill test for the Vuelta a España race leader since he took the overall lead in the only time trial on Tuesday.

The Slovenian is currently 1:52 ahead of second-place Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), with Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana Pro Team) in third at 2:11.

While he acknowledged that he had some "hard days" ahead of him after stage 12, Roglic insisted that he was "not afraid" of any of the climbs.

"I was honored to wear the red jersey today, but it will be my happiest time in Madrid."

"I am happy to wear the red jersey, but it is also a great responsibility.

Asked if he thought the Vuelta was over in both name and substance, given that the Slovenian star had such an advantage and had not shown undue weakness in the mountain stages so far, Roglic replied, with rare humor, "I hope it is over," but quickly switched to his usual serious He quickly switched to his usual serious manner of speaking.

"There are really hard days ahead. But we're a strong team and we're taking the right approach, so I'm not afraid of any stage," he insisted

On Thursday, Jumbo Visma, led by Roberto Gesink, wore out the peloton on the three climbs preceding the fast, technical descent into Bilbao. This proved the Roglic team's ability to keep the race under control.

Then Lopez launched a timid attack on the steepest of the three climbs, the final climb, Alaïs, but was quickly contained by Roglic in person.

"It took a bit of time to break today, but the team was very strong. Everything was under control and I was able to run with the reds today."

As for Los Machucos, Roglic admitted that he did not know what he called a "tough" climb, but he did not seem overly discouraged by the prospect. Even when he crashed in Andorra, the gap to his rivals was minimal.