Date: Sunday, September 8, 2024
Distance: 24.6km
Start location: Distrito Telefónica, Madrid
Finish location: Madrid
Start time: 16:20 CEST
Finish time (approx): 19:30 CEST
Once again, the Vuelta will come to an end with an evening stage in Madrid. The dimmed light of the evening sun always gives this stage an end of term feel, as does the nocturnal podium ceremony that follows it; and given that we’re in Madrid, where the locals eat late and party even later, deep into the early hours, the night is still young by the time it’s done. The Spanish capital is famous for its nightlife, although the organisers have chosen to pay homage to the somewhat drier aspect of Madrid life with a start at the headquarters of Telefónica, marking the centenary of the telecommunications brand, the parent company of the long-standing sponsors of Movistar Team.
Last year, the final stage here had enough excitement to rival a night out in Madrid. Normally this finale is, much like the annual Parisian circuit that closes off the Tour de France each year, a guaranteed sprint finish, but that didn’t stop Remco Evenepoel, Filippo Ganna and four others from trying to deviate from the script by attacking early on the circuit. Together they worked to hold off the charging peloton in a thrilling chase that went right down to the wire, with the escape group just about holding them off, with Kaden Groves triumphing just ahead of Ganna in the sprint between them.
Despite all the thrills of that stage, the organisers have deviated from the formula this year and planned a individual time trial in Madrid rather than the usual circuit stage. This will be only the third time in the last 20 years that the Vuelta has finished with a time trial, and both those most recent occasions were at Santiago de Compostela rather than Madrid — in 2021, when Primož Roglič won the stage to seal overall victory, and 2014, on the occasion of Adriano Malori’s biggest career win, while Alberto Contador comfortably held off Chris Froome to seal the GC.
There was a time trial of almost the exact same length (25.8km as opposed to 24.6km) and terrain (completely flat) during last year’s Vuelta. Ganna took the spoils that day, and Remco Evenepoel came out on top of the GC favourites, without landing too big a blow, with each of Roglič, João Almeida, Aleksandr Vlasov and Juan Ayuso losing less than a minute, and Enric Mas and Mikel Landa the serious contenders to lose more than…