Cycling News

Roglič Rules, But Was It Enough for a 5-Star Race?


“], “filter”: { “nextExceptions”: “img, blockquote, div”, “nextContainsExceptions”: “img, blockquote, a.btn, a.o-button”} }”>

Don’t miss a moment of the 2024 Tour de France! Get recaps, insights, and exclusive takes with Velo’s daily newsletter.
>”,”name”:”in-content-cta”,”type”:”link”}}”>Sign up today!.

How good was the 2024 Vuelta a España?

Record heat, a brutally hard course, and animated racing made it interesting, but was it good?

This rough-and-tumble Vuelta had a lot going for it.

Primož Roglič won a record-tying fourth crown that seemed all but inevitable even with a banged up back and a late-race bad tummy. With the other three of the “Big 4” sitting on the sidelines, who was going to beat him anyway?

Ben O’Connor at least made it interesting after pulling a “Kuss” on the exact same stage that Sepp Kuss sprung clear last year to win. The Australian finally buckled to Roglič’s incessant tapping in stage 19, but he didn’t fully crack, and hung on for a well-deserved first career podium.

Behind those two, this Vuelta was a bit of a mixed bag.

Defending champion Kuss could never amount a serious podium bid, and finished a distant 14th. João Almeida pulled out with COVID-19, and neither Adam Yates or Isaac del Toro could never really get things going for UAE Team Emirates.

So the clash of the “super teams” was muted as well.

Wout van Aert was like a warm cuchillo through Iberian-baked butter, and blazed to three stage wins, and held the green jersey and polka-dot jerseys before crashing out in week 3.

That was a huge blow to Visma-Lease a Bike and to this Vuelta.

Behind Roglič, riders were scrambling for leftovers. Mikel Landa spun out of contention after Soudal Quick-Step misfired its tactics on a hard transition stage that left him isolated without teammates.

Enric Mas, Spain’s eternal nearly man, hung on for a fourth-career Vuelta podium, yet he never really had the legs to put Roglič under serious pressure.

Not having the very best dominating across three weeks create that divine madness that makes the Vuelta so enthralling.

Here are the highs and lows, the breakout riders and busts, and everything in between in another wild Vuelta:

Rating this Vuelta: ‘Muy bien’ but not great

Roglič
Roglič battled through a bad back and a bad tummy to win a fourth title. (Photo: Alberto Gardin/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)

Where does this Vuelta rank compared to the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France?

Like any Vuelta, this was a wild, uncontrolled, and delightfully chaotic affair.

No one’s ever in peak form for the Spanish grand tour, so that means it’s highly unpredictable yet sometimes frustratingly forlorn.

There were breakaways galore, something that livened up this Vuelta compared to the sometimes-moribund and tightly wound Tour.

The Giro d’Italia and Tour de France were swarmed this year by the unstoppable force of Tadej Pogačar.

So this year’s Vuelta was a chance for everyone else to shine.

Several riders went all-in and came away with career-altering results. O’Connor with his first grand tour podium and Mattias Skjelmose with the white jersey and a top-5 in his first real run at the GC.

Richard Carapaz finally turned the page on injury, and though he didn’t hit the final podium, fourth overall feels like a new start for the 2019 Giro winner.

There were some feel-good wins, with Eddie Dunbar finally having some luck of the Irish to win two stages. Brandon McNulty won the opening time trial and Stefan Küng the last in his first career grand tour stage win.

Michael Woods proved age and experience still count, while Pavel Bittner squeezed out a sprint win against the dominance of Van Aert and Kaden Groves.

Even without Pogačar or Almeida, UAE Team Emirates still hoovered up across this Vuelta.

It won three stages, held the race leader’s jersey, won the King of the Mountains and team prizes, as well as the most combative prize with Marc Soler, an insatiable force in the back half of the Vuelta.

Unsung Kern Pharma won three stages with up-and-coming young Spanish riders and hit nine more podiums in a performance that revealed both the thinness of this Vuelta and the opportunity the race presents.

Yet Ineos Grenadiers could only muster 10th with Carlos Rodríguez and no stage wins leaving many wondering what’s happening inside the once-mighty UK team.

Kuss could never get his engine running, and Roglič seemed to be racing by rote memory.

So how was this Vuelta?

There were plenty of sparks almost daily and the GC was tighter than the other grand tours, but for me, it lacked a larger sense of gravitas or grandeur.

This Vuelta never delivered the moving narratives or suspense to raise it to the five-star level.

Out of five glasses of Rioja, this one gets three-and-a-half.

‘I went to bathroom 20 times’: Nothing is ever easy for Roglič

MADRID, SPAIN - SEPTEMBER 08: Primoz Roglic of Slovenia and Team Red Bull Bora - hansgrohe - Red Leader Jersey celebrates at finish line as final overall winner during the La Vuelta - 79th Tour of Spain 2024, Stage 21 a 24.6km individual time trial stage from Madrid to Madrid / #UCIWT / on September 08, 2024 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Roglič celebrates a record fourth victory at the Vuelta. (Photo by Tim de Waele/Getty Images)

Primož Roglič might have ticked out his fourth Vuelta a España victory with surgical precision, but nothing ever comes easy for the Slovenian.

After celebrating his victory Sunday in Madrid, Roglič revealed to FloBikes just how sick he was in the closing days of the Vuelta.

A stomach bug swept through the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe ranks, sending two riders home and another missing the time cut (see below) Saturday.

Roglič managed to fight through back pain early in this Vuelta and avoid a disaster in the closing days.

It was trademark Rogla.

“I went to the bathroom maybe 20 times,” Roglič told FloBikes. “I was too far to not finish it off. It was a challenge for all of us to try to prevent all of these things from happening.”

At least it was never as bad as what Tom Dumoulin suffered during stage 16 at the 2017 Giro d’Italia when he abruptly pulled off the road to take care of an urgent nature call.

Red Bull never could pinpoint exactly what happened to cause the stomach bug, but Roglič was already isolated within the team hotel each night with his own room after COVID-19 started to spread through the peloton.

No rider can spice up a race as much as the live-wire Roglič, because you never really know what version you’re going to see.

Roglič dodged the bullet and pulled even with Roberto Heras with four Vuelta wins to add more shine to his already shimmering palmarès.

Without Roglič, this would have been a lesser Vuelta.

Podium salvation: Ben O’Connor joins elite Aussie club

Ben O'Connor
O’Connor is the fifth Australian to hit a grand tour podium. (Photo: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)

Kudos to Ben O’Connor, who made history Sunday to become the fifth Australian to hit a grand tour podium.

After leading for 13 days, O’Connor dug deep this weekend to defend second overall for the best in Aussie cycling in the Spanish grand tour.

After twice finishing fourth in grand tours, second was a salve for O’Connor, who moves to Jayco-AlUla in 2025.

“I’ve been close before but to get it now is such an amazing thing,” O’Connor said Sunday in Madrid.  “It’s in the spirit of grit and I did it in a bit of an unconventional way. I was nervous this morning. It’s a lot of pressure off my shoulders.

“It’s a win. I was really surprised I could get to stage 19 wearing the red jersey still, and it’s nice to have that feeling that you can one day win a grand tour,” he said. “Being close here is pretty special.”

The podium puts O’Connor in elite company within Australian cycling.

Other Australians to finish on the Vuelta podium include third with Cadel Evans in 2009 and Jack Haig with third in 2021.

Evans remains the only Australian to win the Tour de France with victory in 2011, and was second in 2007 and 2008. Evans was also third in the 2013 Giro to be the only Australian to finish on all three grand tour podiums.

Jai Hindley won the Giro in 2022 as the only other Australian grand tour winner, and was second in the 2020 Giro.

Richie Porte is the other Australian to a grand tour podium and only the second after Evans with third in the 2020 Tour.

O’Connor will carry newfound confidence and momentum into “home team” Jayco-AlUla for 2025. The results could be invigorating for everyone involved.

Bahrain Victorious empty-handed in wins across 2024 grand tours

UAE
UAE didn’t win the GC, but it saw plenty of podium time in Madrid. (Photo: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)

With Stefan Küng powering to victory Sunday, the Swiss rider capped the 2024 grand tour season with a grand tour win for Groupama-FDJ, its first since 2022.

Sunday was the 63rd and final grand tour stage of 2024. Here are some interesting statistics compiled by La Vuelta:

Riders from 21 different teams won grand tour stages this year:

15 UAE Team Emirates
6 Alpecin-Deceuninck
5 Soudal Quick-Step, Visma-Lease a Bike
3 Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, Kern Pharma, Jayco AlUla, Intermarché-Wanty, Lidl-Trek, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe
2 DSM-Firmenich-PostNL, EF Education-EasyPost, Ineos Grenadiers
1 Arkéa-B&B Hotels, Astana Qazaqstan, Cofidis, Israel Premier Tech, Lotto Dstny, Movistar, Total Energies
, Groupama-FDJ

Bahrain Victorious is the only World Tour team without a grand tour stage win in 2024. Their last grand tour stage victory was in last year’s Vuelta with Wout Poels in stage 20.

Riders from 17 different nations have won grand tour stages this year:

15 Slovenia
11 Belgium
6 France
5 Italy, Spain
4 Australia
3 Eritrea
2 Ecuador, Great Britain, Ireland, Netherlands
1 Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, USA, Switzerland

Stefan Küng finally fastest in grand tour stage

Stefan Küng
Küng survived a brutal Vuelta to win his first career grand tour stage victory. (Photo: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)

It might seem hard to believe, but Stefan Küng won his first grand tour stage Sunday in Madrid.

The Swiss Time Machine’s been close plenty of times across his career, with 29 wins, among them 21 time trials, but Sunday was his first grand tour stage.

“It’s amazing finally I waited or I’ve been fighting for it for a very long time, and I really wanted the win today,” Küng said. “I am just so happy that I got this win here at the Vuelta, my first grand tour stage win, it’s been a long time in the making. It’s nice to win by more than a half-minute, it shows you were the best. There was no coincidence. It pays off for all the work. I always try to be professional and get the maximum out of me. It feels good.”

Up next are the European championships this weekend and the UCI road world championships the week after on a challenging, hilly course in Zürich.

“There are a lot of big of TTs coming up. When you get the confidence, you want to stay on the wave,” Küng said. “I think the Vuelta was the best preparation for the home worlds in Zurich, because they’re going to be hard. The level is high and the confidence is here, so I have to keep going like this.

Slovenian rules: Roglič wins a 5th grand tour

Roglič
Roglič wins his fourth Vuelta that’s also his fifth grand tour victory. (Photo: OSCAR DEL POZO/AFP via Getty Images)

With second in Sunday’s time trial to secure his overall, Roglič reaffirms his spot atop of the grand tour heap.

The fourth Vuelta crown equals him with Roberto Heras for the record of the most victories in the Spanish grand tour.

Coupled with his Giro d’Italia win in 2023, Roglič now boasts five grand tour victories across his dramatic career.

That slots him into second on the all-time grand tour winners’ list among active riders.

Chris Froome packs seven, with Tadej Pogačar just behind with four. Jonas Vingegaard, Egan Bernal, and Nairo Quintana all won two each.

With Pogačar winning the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France, Slovenians also won all three grand tours in 2024.

“It’s crazy, huh?” Roglič said of the Slovenian sweep. “No one could have imagined that Slovenia could do that. It’s nice to be part of it.”

The last nation to pull that off was Great Britain in 2018, with Froome winning the Giro, Geraint Thomas the Tour, and Simon Yates victorious in the Vuelta.

The 34-year-old has won a grand tour every year since 2019, except in 2022, when he crashed out of both the Tour and Vuelta that year.

The Vuelta also counts as Slovenia’s ninth grand tour victory, with five for Roglič and four for Pogačar. Slovenia has now won nine of the last 16 grand tours dating back to the 2019 Vuelta.

Nico Denz time cut on penultimate stage

Nico Denz
Denz raced with illness Saturday, but was time cut by the race jury. (Photo: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)

Courage doesn’t count for much in the face of enforcing the rules.

Nico Denz was time cut at the end of Saturday’s stage despite racing the entire stage alone.

The German rider was dropped on the first climb, but refused to step off the bike despite falling ill as part of the wave of sickness that zapped Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.

The heroics were not enough to convince the race jury, which applied the rules that the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider was beyond the time cut.

On the Picón Blanco summit, Denz crossed the line at 51:08 back, nearly one hour behind stage-winner Eddie Dunbar and nearly 20 minutes behind the grupetto.

Saturday’s time limit was set at 18 percent of the winner’s time or 5:28:46 (+50:09). Denz missed the time cut by 59 seconds.

That happened on a day when Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe lost Patrick Gamper and Dani Martínez to illness that swept the team.

Denz raced to honor the Vuelta, but the race jury did not find any leeway to let him stay in the race despite Sunday’s TT having no impact on the final outcome.

“I will of course accept not starting today. Out is out, even though it is painful to stop 20k from the end after a hell of Vuelta we did as a team,” Denz said, referring to Sunday’s time trial. “But you cannot control everything and life is cruel sometimes.

“I got sick overnight. Suffering from stomach issues I got dropped 2km into the race,” Denz said Saturday. “I never gave up and fight my way alone over 160km until the finish line after my teammates pulled out. Unfortunately I was 56 seconds short. Anyway I left it all out there and tried to honor the race by finishing.”

The race jury was active across this Vuelta, handing out a wave of its new “yellow cards,” and dishing out fines and penalties with wild abandon.

That made the post-stage jury report must-reading every day.

Van Aert, Almeida, Woods among near-record DNFs

Van Aert
Van Aert crashed heavily and abandoned the Vuelta. (Photo: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)

Wout van Aert and João Almeida were among the biggest names among dozens of non-finishers during this brutal edition of the Vuelta.

Brutal heat in the opening half pushed the peloton to the edge. Some costly crashes and a COVID-19 outbreak sent more than a few main players out early.

UAE Team Emirates lost all hope of sweeping all three grand tours when GC candidate Almeida left with COVID while poised for a virtual podium. Adam Yates surged into contention with a big stage win, but the team could not prove consistent across the second week to challenge for the win.

Van Aert crashed out of the Vuelta in a heartbreak spill when he was leading both the points and mountain classification. A winner of three stages, Van Aert will not race again in 2024.

Sunday’s 135 finishers is a near-record of abandons during the past decade, coming close to 2022 when the Vuelta saw the lowest number of finishers in 10 years with 133.

Dylan Van Baarle and Cian Uijtdebroeks also exited early for Visma-Lease a Bike that was a shadow of its dominance in 2023, when it packed 1-2-3 on the podium spots as part of its sweep of all three grand tours last year.

Other big names to abandon included Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers), Michael Woods (Israel Premie Tech), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Lennert van Eetvelt and Andreas Kron (Lotto Dstny), Rigobert Urán (EF Education-EasyPost), and Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious).

De Gendt, Gesink, Maté ride into sunset

Gesink
Gesink waves goodbye to racing Sunday in Madrid. (Photo: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)

Robert Gesink (Visma-Lease a Bike), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Dstny) and Luis Angel Maté (Euskaltel-Euskadi) all raced their last days as professionals in Sunday’s final TT.

All three were winners who later evolved into team captains and mentors. De Gendt, 37, fell short across the Vuelta of winning one more grand tour stage to round out his five across the Giro, Tour, and Vuelta.

“I don’t think I will my touch my bike next week,” De Gendt said. “I plan to eat a lot of things I shouldn’t be eating.”

Gesink, 38, was once hailed as a possible grand tour winner after a string of top-10s, including fourth in the 2010 Tour. He later emerged as a loyal domestique and road captain.

“It’s an honor to finish my career here at the Vuelta,” Gesink said. “Last year was very special with finishing 1-2-3, and Spain, and now Andorra, is where I have my own. I will keep living there and enjoy skiing now with my children.”





Source link

Related posts