Primoz Roglic from Slovenia secured his fourth Vuelta a Espana title on Sunday, which matches the record held by Spaniard Roberto Heras. Despite an impressive individual time-trial win by Stefan Kung in the concluding 24.6km stage in Madrid, Roglic kept his overall advantage. The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe cyclist re-acquired the red jersey from Australian Ben O’Connor by launching a solo assault on stage 19, and the Slovenian maintained his lead since.
After crossing the finish line, Roglic displayed a triumphant smile and raised a single finger to the skies. He ended the race with a lead of 2 minutes and 36 seconds over O’Connor. Enric Mas from Spain, who rides for Movistar, claimed the third place.
Prior to this, Roglic had already won the Vuelta three consecutive times, starting from 2019. He entered this race amid high expectations, particularly as some of his major competitors – Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, and Olympic gold medallist Remco Evenepoel – chose not to participate. Roglic was in for a shock, however, when Decathlon-AG2R la Mondiale’s O’Connor overtook him on stage six and established a five-minute lead.
Undeterred, the rider known as the ‘Slovenian Dream Crusher’ gradually made a comeback and clinched the title with his performance in stage 19 from the summit of Alto de Moncalvillo.
Roglic, who had to withdraw from the Tour de France before stage 13 due to a double consecutive-stage crash, savoured the victory all the more. He performed impressively in the last stage time-trial as the Olympic gold medallist in the event, clocking a timing of 26 minutes and 59 seconds, only surpassed by Kung’s by 31 seconds. Irish Eddie Dunbar and Darren Rafferty performed adequately as well, placing 11th and 75th respectively in the overall ranking.