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Primoz Roglic makes history as Jumbo-Visma rider becomes first Slovenian to win grand tour at Vuelta a Espana
Primoz Roglic made a slice of sporting history in Madrid on Sunday when the Jumbo-Visma rider became the first Slovenian to win one of cycling's three grand tours.
Having arrived on the Costa Blanca a little over three weeks ago as overall favourite, the fact that the 29-year-old won the 74th edition of the Vuelta a España will have surprised few. However, the manner in which Roglic and his compatriot Tadej Pogacar – riding for rival squad UAE Team Emirates – dominated the winners' podium in the Spanish capital following Fabio Jakobsen's routine stage win may have.
It was the dazzling performances of first-year professional Pogacar that stood out most though, perhaps none moreso than Saturday's explosive attack on the Puerto de Peña Negra, the penultimate climb of the final day in the mountains. Isolated and without any team-mates the odds were stacked against Pogacar who two days previously had lost his leading young rider's white jersey to Miguel Ángel López of Astana.
Attack after attacked flowed from López who was looking to break into the top three on general classification, but the Colombian was unable to break the resolve of a select group featuring Roglic, Pogacar, Alejandro Valverde and Nairo Quintana who had started the day third overall. Having watched the moves and waited in the wheels, the 20-year-old timed his decisive attack to perfection. What followed was incredible.
Still 40 kilometres from the finish and around 5km from the summit of the Puerto de Peña Negra, Pogacar simply rode his rivals off his wheel, leaving them looking stationary. By the time Pogacar had lifted his arms in celebration having won a third stage on his grand tour debut the young Slovenian had put 1min 32sec into his nearest rival. Pogacar had leapfrogged Quintana into third on general classification and had wrested the white jersey off the shoulders of López. It was a performance to send shockwaves through the world of cycling.
Until Saturday only two riders in the history of cycling had won three stages at a single grand tour before turning 21. After claiming his third win – all summit finishes – Pogacar joined René Vietto (Tour de France, 1934) and Giuseppe Saronni (Giro d'Italia, 1978) in that select group. Pogacar also became the first 20-year-old since Gianbattista Barronchelli at the Giro in 1974 to claim a podium place after cementing third behind Valverde in Madrid on Sunday.
However, it was Roglic who got to stand on the top step of the podium following the largely processional stage into Madrid that was won by Dutch sprinter Jakobsen of the Deceuninck-Quick Step squad.
"I am a little tired but it is just a great feeling that we won a nice race in cycling. I'm really happy that we finished it off," a typically understated Roglic said afterwards. "I still have a lot of things to do, and I am already thinking about other things, not just enjoying this moment."
Having recently signed a new deal that will keep Roglic with his Dutch team until 2023, Jumbo-Visma will now be hoping to challenge the hegemony of Ineos – formerly Team Sky – at the Tour de France.
After almost going out of business in 2012 following the withdrawal of title sponsors Rabobank, Jumbo-Visma has in recent years regrouped and refocused while building a squad able to target the big three-week races and in 2019 managed to put a rider on the final podium in all three grand tours. The addition of Tom Dumoulin to the squad will not only come as a huge boost to Jumbo-Visma, but also give Ineos, a little like Roglic, plenty to think about going into next year.
Jakobsen wins the stage!
And all the hard work from Deceuninck-Quick Step pays off in Madrid as the Belgian squad claims its fifth stage win at the Vuelta thanks to Fabio Jakobsen who lunged for the line ahead of Sam Bennett. Two stage wins from Jakobsen, a pair from Philippe Gilbert and a lone victory for Rémi Cavagna means that the team who normally dominates the early-season classics has in fact won 25 per cent of the stages available to individual riders. It is worth mentioning, too, that young British rider Jame Knox also managed to finish 11th on general classification missing out on the top 10 by just 35sec. What. A. Team.
1.5km to go
Deceuninck-Quick Step has Rémi Cavagna – stage winner in Toledo on Friday – on the front, hammering along at around 70km/h.
28km to go
Sunweb now have numbers up near the front of the bunch, could either Nikias Arndt – who won stage eight – or Max Walschield be contesting the stage win in 20 minutes or so? Interestingly, too, UAE Team Emirates has a man up front helping things along so maybe Fernando Gaviria is feeling like he has the legs today?
Degenkolb has his say . . .
The German sprinter who is off to Lotto-Soudal next year, has been speaking about his chances today: "I’m really tired but I think everyone who’s done the last three weeks is tired. It’s been some really hard stages. The parcours is really nice, I like the circuit and it’s a nice finish for La Vuelta. I was struggling quite a lot and didn’t really make any result but that’s how it is and today is the last big chance."
36km to go
Jonathan Lastra(Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) is riding in no man''s land between the two stage leaders and the peloton, but the television pictures are not showing the time gaps which is not very helpful. I'd estimate the gap between Diego Rubio and Daniel Martínez and the peloton is roughly 20sec, but surely they will be caught?
40km to go | Seven laps to go
Daniel Martínez and Diego Rubio continue to lead the stage, while back in the pack Rafal Majka is putting in a turn on the front on behalf of Bora-Hansgrohe team-mate Sam Bennett who will e hoping to win a third stage at this year's race here later today. Deceuninck-Quick Step also has numbers near the head of the field, they will be riding for Fabio Jakobsen, their flying young Dutchman, winner of stage four.
52.3km to go
As expected, Jumbo-Visma led the peloton over the line. Eight laps of this finishing circuit to follow before the expected bunch sprint finish, but who will take the honours? Sam Bennett, Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Fernando Gaviria or even John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) who has won here twice before (2012 and 2015).
55km to go
The bunch is, er, starting to bunch up as it senses it is reaching the finishing circuit in the centre of Madrid. Jumbo-Visma appears to be taking their place on the front and will lead the maillot rojo onto the circuit before, more than likely, a few bandits attempt to forge a breakaway . . . which will get reeled back in by the sprinters' teams ahead of the final battle in this three-week race around Spain.
60km to go
Sam Bennett, my pick of the day for this stage, looks fairly relaxed as he chats with the young South African rider Nic Dlamini (Dimension Data). He's an interesting young man is Dlamini who I was first made aware of in 2013 when he rode London-Paris with HotChillee. I was riding with a few friends and colleagues and didn't really get to speak with the then promising teenager, but there's a great piece here on the Rouleur website that I shall implore you to read once this stage is over.
Beer o'clock!
Primoz Roglic, Tadej Pogacar, Geoffrey Bouchard and Alejandro Valverde are all having a beer while they ride. The beer of choice – supplied by a race sponsor – I think is alcohol free, so their bike handling skills shouldn't be hampered. Mind, from what I've heard Roglic likes a beer so maybe he could handle a full-strength brew.
80km to go
The entire Jumbo-Visma squad – those that remain in the race, at least – are riding alongside each other as the team of the race leader Primoz Roglic pose for the cameras. And why not, they will have posted a man in the top three of each of the grand tours this season, not bad for a squad that almost went out of business a few years ago. Roglic, as you will recall, finished third at the Giro d'Italia in May before his Dutch team-mate Steven Kruijswijk also took third at the Tour de France.
90km to go
Fernando Gaviria(UAE Team Emirates) was just spotted riding all alone behind the slow-moving bunch. Quite surprised to see the Colombian sprinter there. I say that because I had completely forgot he was at the Vuelta a España. The best result the 25-year-old has managed so far here was third on stage four, but today should end in a sprint so the hugely talented rider will get one last chance to save his Vuelta.
95km to go
As the peloton taps away along what looks like a dual carriageway, Alejandro Valverde continues to be the focus of attention from the television production company who is relaying pictures of the race around the world. It's a bizarre sight watching the final stage of a grand tour riding along a dual carriageway – or perhaps a motorway?
Anyway, it's currently fairly sunny where the riders are but further up the road in Madrid there is a threat of rain. It rained earlier ahead of the women's race which contributed to a number of crashes. If it does rain again race organisers have announced the timings for the general classification will be taken on the finishing line of the first of eight finishing circuits after 52.3km.
Rolling, rolling, rolling . . .
The peloton has started to turn its collective pedal cranks and the roll-out from Fuenlabrada is under way. Each of the classification jersey wearers Primoz Roglic, Geoffrey Bouchard, Tadej Pogacar are leading the way, while the trio has world champion Alejandro Valverde for company.
Nairo Quintana is also up there dressed in the green jersey, although Roglic is the genuine holder of that particular garment but he can't wear two so the Colombian gets the honour despite sitting fifth in the standings behind Roglic, Pogacar, Valverde and Sam Bennett who would clearly prefer to wear his Irish national champions' jersey today. Quintana, tucked in behind the bona fide leaders, is looking a little sheepish.
Brennauer claims Madrid Challenge | Hosking sprints to stage two win
Earlier this afternoon the Australian sprinter Chloe Hosking (Alé Cipollini) won stage two of the catchily-titled WNT Madrid Challenge by la Vuelta in front of the Cibeles Square following 98.6km of racing.
Hosking outsprinted the young Italian Letizia Paternoster (Trek-Segafredo) while Roxane Fournier (Movistar) of France was third.
Lisa Brennauer (WNT-Rotor Pro Cycling) secured the general classification of the two-day race after the German finished 16th the day after winning the 9.3km individual time trial in Boadilla del Monte, a suburb on the western side of the Spanish capital, ahead of Lucinda Brand (Sunweb) and Pernille Mathiesen (Sunweb) who were also second and third respectively in the final general classification. The race was the penultimate event in the 2019 UCI Women’s WorldTour ahead of the Tour of Guangxi in October.
Welcome all
Hello and welcome to our live rolling blog from stage 21 of the 74th edition of the Vuelta a España, the 106.6km run from Fuenlabrada to Madrid. As you can see from the below profile of this the final stage of the final grand tour of the season, today is not the most testing day the riders will have encountered over the past three weeks.
With no classified climbs featuring in the almost panflat route, all Geoffrey Bouchard (Ag2r-La Mondiale) needs to do to secure the mountains classification is complete the stage within the time limit.
A little like the final stage in the Tour de France, the last day at the Vuelta is also traditionally a largely processional affair and so we are not expecting any changes in the various classifications – general, points, mountains and team. Assuming the days goes to plan then Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) will make history by becoming the first Slovenian to win a grand tour as well as the points jersey, while his compatriot Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) will take home the white jersey as the best young rider of the race. Movistar, who have three riders – Alejandro Valverde (second), Nairo Quintana (fourth) and Marc Soler (ninth) – in the overall top 10, will win the team classification. Of course they will, that's what Movistar do.
Today's racing is due to get under way at 4.10pm (BST).
The Cycling Podcast: re-cap of yesterday's stage
The penultimate stage and last in the mountains of the Vuelta a España saw a fierce battle among the main contenders with 20-year-old Tadej Pogacar winning his third stage to move up to third overall.
It means he will finish on the podium in Madrid on Sunday, with his fellow Slovenian Primoz Roglic on the top step and Alejandro Valverde in second.
Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe and Orla Chennaoui discuss the stage and also the controversy of the previous day. There are interviews with Philippe Gilbert and Rémi Cavagna of Deceuninck-Quick Step and with Pogacar’s manager at UAE Team Emirates, Joxean Fernández Matxin. And there are the latest instalments of rider diaries from Nick Schultz and James Knox.
- The Cycling Podcast is supported by Rapha and Science in Sport