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 Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France, Roglič’s victory also marks a clean sweep for Slovenia in the Grand Tours this season.
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.
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.
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
