Primož Roglič wrapped up his fourth Vuelta a Espana title on Sunday, tying Roberto Heras’ record of four crowns. Both riders won four out of six consecutive editions in the 21st Century. Even their winning gaps are similar. Heras won by (ascending order) 0:28, 2:13, 2:33 and 4:36 and Roglič prevailed by 0:24, 2:33, 2:36 and 4:42. Roglič now has five Grand Tour trophies altogether. His new Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe squad—the strongest in the race despite being wracked with illness at the end—can boast two Grand Tour victories.
Roglič was second to Stefan Küng in Sunday’s concluding 24.6-km Madrid time trial.
It took the Slovenian two weeks to run down Ben O’Connor, an Aussie who should have never been allowed in a breakaway. O’Connor’s stage win on Stage 6 gave him a 4:51 edge over Roglič, one finally overcome on Friday’s 19th stage. O’Connor is the second best 2024 Grand Tour rider after Tadej Pogačar, having also achieved fourth in May’s Giro d’Italia.
Fatigue caused Michael Woods to not start Stage 17, giving him five DNF’s in his last six Grand Tours. Offsetting that was his third Vuelta stage win, his fourth career Grand Tour stage triumph.
Five riders won multiple Vuelta stages: Roglič, Wout van Aert, Kaden Groves, Eddie Dunbar and Pablo Castrillo.
Despite not sweeping the Grand Tours like Visma-Lease a Bike did last season, UAE-Emirates had three stage victories via three different riders (Brandon McNulty, Adam Yates, Marc Soler), took home the King of the Mountain prize through yet another rider (Jay Vine) and claimed the team prize, something it also accomplished at the Tour de France. Soler was awarded the supercombativity prize. The team’s top man on GC was ninth place Pavel Sivakov.
Until the last few stages, the young rider classification was a scrap between Florian Lipowitz, Carlos Rodriguez and Matthias Skjelmose. Skjelmose pulled ahead in the final week and jumped over David Gaudu in the GC after Sunday’s time trial.
2024 Grand Tour Rundown
Four riders finished in the top…
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