After three weeks of racing, Primož Roglič was crowned victorious in Madrid as he won the Vuelta a España for a record-equalling fourth time. The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider safely navigated the streets of the Spanish capital in the final stage time trial to secure the overall victory ahead of Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Enric Mas (Movistar).
His win puts him level with Roberto Heras for the most overall victories in the race’s history and after Tadej Pogačar’s exploits at both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France, Roglič’s victory also marks a clean sweep for Slovenia in the Grand Tours this season.
When asked in his post-race interview about the possibility of a record-breaking fifth win, Roglič replied “it’s never enough, but first of all it’s crazy to already have four, so I just want to enjoy it”.
Meanwhile, after years of being a nearly man, Stefan Küng finally won the first Grand Tour stage of his career, as he took the victory on the final stage of the race with a dominant performance. The Groupama-FDJ rider flew around the 24.6km-long course to top the timing sheets with a time of 26 minutes and 28 seconds, putting half a minute into Roglič in second place.
This win will also give him a lot of confidence going into the rest of the season ahead of his home World Championships in Zurich later this month. In his post-race interview, Küng said “there are a lot of big individual time trials coming up and when you get the confidence you just want to stay on the wave”.
There was only one change in the top-10 on the general classification on the final day, as Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) leapfrogged David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) to take fifth place after a horrific time trial from the Frenchman.
The 23-year-old Dane also won the youth classification, with Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) and Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) also getting around the course unscathed to win the mountains and points classifications respectively.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The final Grand Tour stage of the season was a fast time trial around the streets of Madrid, with the riders making their way into the city centre from the north. The course was relatively flat with several sweeping corners, which meant that it lent itself to the pure specialists who were able to produce the most power.
Edoardo Affini (Visma-Lease a Bike) was the first recognised time trialist off the ramp and he set the first benchmark time of the day, but looked shaky through the corners as he struggled with his double disc wheel set-up which his teammate Wout van Aert used at the Olympics.
The Italian’s time was quickly surpassed by Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny), who would stay in the hot seat for sometime before Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) dethroned the Belgian with an unexpected strong performance. Meanwhile, Filippo Baroncini (UAE Team Emirates) was setting quick times out on course and it was not long before he crossed the line to set the new fastest time.
When Stefan Küng rolled off the start ramp though, it was clear that he was on a mission to win the stage, as he smashed the fastest times at both intermediate splits and put 44 seconds into Baroncini’s time at the finish with an average speed of 55.8km/h.
Küng finished his run with the riders in the top-15 overall still yet to take to the start ramp, but his blisteringly quick time meant that he could rest fairly easily in the hot seat.
Though some of the minor placings in the overall standings were still somewhat up for grabs, it was clear that the stage was more about getting around the course and making it to the finish than taking time or competing for the stage win for many of the fatigued general classification contenders.
The only rider who even came remotely close to challenging Küng’s time was Primož Roglič, who set the second best time on the stage at 31 seconds down.
It was still enough for the Slovenian to put yet more time into all of his rivals in the general classification though, taking his overall margin of victory to two minutes and 36 seconds over Ben O’Connor in second place.
The 2024 Vuelta a España concluded with the traditional podium celebrations, as Roglič added yet another maillot rojo to his collection.
With the last Grand Tour of the year over, we can now look ahead to the remainder of the season and the exciting races still to come as we near the end of yet another year of racing.
RESULTS: VUELTA A ESPAÑA 2024, STAGE 21, MADRID > MADRID (24.6KM)
1. Stefan Küng (Swi) Groupama-FDJ, in 26:28
2. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +31s
3. Matteo Cattaneo (Ita) Soudal Quick-Step, +42s
4. Filippo Baroncini (Ita) UAE Team Emirates, +43s
5. Mauro Schmid (Swi) Jayco AlUla, +46s
6. Mathias Vacek (Cze) Lidl-Trek, +52s
7. Victor Campenaerts (Bel) Lotto Dstny, +56s
8. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek, +1:02
9. Harry Sweeny (Aus) EF Education-EasyPost, +1:03
10. Bruno Armirail (Fra) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, at same time
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 21
1. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, in 81:49:18
2. Ben O'Connor (Aus) Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale, +2:36
3. Enric Mas (Spa) Movistar, +3:13
4. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost, +4:02
5. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek, +5:49
6. David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, +6:32
7. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +7:05
8. Mikel Landa (Spa) Soudal Quick-Step, +8:48
9. Pavel Sivakov (Fra) UAE-Team Emirates, +10:04
10. Carlos Rodríguez (Spa) Ineos Grenadiers, +11:19
