Slovenia’s Primoz Roglič sealed a record-equalling fourth Vuelta a España title on Sunday after retaining his total lead within the last stage of the race, a 24.6 km particular person time-trial in Madrid which was gained by Stefan Kung.
Purple Bull-BORA-hansgrohe’s Roglič reclaimed the purple jersey from Australian Ben O’Connor with a devastating solo assault on stage 19 on Friday and the Slovenian rider by no means regarded again as he equalled Spaniard Roberto Heras’s file of 4 Vuelta wins.
When Roglič crossed the road, he pointed a finger to the sky and smiled as he completed with an total lead of two minutes and 36 seconds over O’Connor whereas Spaniard Enric Mas of Movistar was third.
Victory was all of the extra particular for Roglič who was pressured to desert the Tour de France forward of stage 13 after the yellow jersey contender crashed twice in consecutive levels.
Roglič, who gained three consecutive Vueltas from 2019, got here into this yr’s race because the clear favorite, with Giro d’Italia and Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard and Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel opting to not experience in Spain.
Nevertheless, he was shocked by O’Connor when the Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale rider took the purple jersey from him on stage six and opened up a spot of almost 5 minutes.
However Roglic, nicknamed the “Slovenian Dream Crusher”, slowly clawed his manner again and put one hand on the title in stage 19 on the summit end of Alto de Moncalvillo.
Roglič was the final rider out for the ultimate stage and the Tokyo Olympics time-trial gold medallist completed with a time of 26 minutes and 59 seconds, ok for second after Swiss bicycle owner Kung went 31 seconds sooner.
Reuters
