Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla) may have said he was "disappointed" at his form on the first uphill finish at La Vuelta but today the Irishman looked much closer to his old self as the road kicked up again.
Having placed 14th yesterday - in a sprint finish after the race was ripped apart by Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe on a late climb - Ireland's Dunbar was once again at the pointy end today.
And his performance on today's stage 8, his best so far by a considerable margin, suggests he may be in for a good Vuelta even though he was a little slow out of the blocks in the first week.
However, there was no mistake about the winner today as Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) put in a trade mark top tier performance; climbing at the front, and dropping almost everyone, before pulling the trigger at the finish line atop the cat 3 climb to the line that did a lot of damage.
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Only Enric Mas (Team Movistar) could match Roglič on the climb, but the Spanish rider folded in the sprint, easily beaten by the Slovenia to the stage win and 10-second time bonus.
A trail of destruction - though not major gaps - lay in the wake of the leading duo; Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep) placing 3rd at 14 seconds and Ireland's Dunbar putting in a great ride for 8th at 26 seconds.
Race leader Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) ceded time today when the general classification man went for broke close to the finish; the Australian back in 17th and losing 46 seconds to Roglic, or 56 when the time bonus is added in.
Ireland's Darren Rafferty (EF Education-EasyPost) is also in the race and he led the peloton into the final climb today - some 4.8km averaging 7.2 per cent. Rafferty, in his Irish champion's kit, could be seen moving to the front - getting team mate Richard Carapaz into position - as the first really steep ramps began.
Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe then immediately took it up, clearly eager to make the ascent as hard as possible from the start to put race leader O'Connor under pressure and catch the remaining riders from the early breakaway, still one minute up the road.
There was a crash towards the front of the bunch at that point, which Rafferty just narrowly missed, and that incident, coupled with the pace of Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe resulted in splits appearing in the bunch immediately the climb began.
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With 4km of climbing remaining, Roglič hit the front of the exploding bunch, followed by O'Connor in the maglia rosa on his wheel, and Carapaz track them. That injection of pace soon pulled eight riders clear, though those numbers soon swelled as about 10 more men got onto the back of them, including Ireland's Dunbar.
With about 2.5km to go, Roglič attacked again, going clear with Mas and Carapaz in his wheel. A group of six, containing Dunbar, slipped backwards initially but then got the three leaders; the front group now having split in half and Ireland's Dunbar making the cut.
And though that group swelled in number a little, as more riders got across, Roglič soon went again, with just over 1km to go and the last of the breakaway men caught. and this time only Mas could hold him.
And that's how it stayed to the finish; Roglič winning from Mas as the others battled up the climb behind them to limit their losses. In the end, after doing his team work to the base of the final climb, Grand Tour debutant Rafferty rode up the final climb to finish 89th at 7:53.
O'Connor still leads the race overall, though he lost over one minute to Roglič, who is 2nd in the general classification at 3:49 with Mas in 3rd at 4:31. Dunbar moves up a little overall, by three placings, and is now in 23rd some 8:05 down.
More to come.
??? | De Vuelta is begonnen! Primoz Roglic wint zijn tweede rit en pakt een flinke hap tijd op Ben O'Connor! ?? #LaVuelta24
? Stream koers op HBO Max pic.twitter.com/SVS3NSoLFi
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