The third and final Grand Tour of the men’s season wrapped up in Madrid yesterday. I don’t, myself, care for a stage race that ends with a time trial, but they didn’t ask me. It was a fun one, full of drama most days, and there were some surprising performances that will echo into next season, not least Primož Roglič’s quest for a Tour de France win to round out his Giro and four Vueltas.
If you weren’t following along, here’s what you missed:
- Primož Roglič takes his 4th Vuelta. This was the prediction everyone made in advance of the race, the Slovenian in red in Madrid again, but no one saw it unfolding quite like this with Roglič patiently stalking the top podium step, clawing back seconds stage after stage, before calmly pulling on the leader’s jersey after Stage 19. What does it mean? Is he the third best GC rider in the men’s peloton, or in the right conditions, with the right team, is he a contender for the Giro (he did already win one) or even the Tour? We’ll find out soon enough, because at 34 he’s going to have to chase his dreams. 2025 will tell us whether Primož Roglič is one of the all-time greats (With 5 Grand Tour wins to his name, there’s already a case), or just one Tour de France away.
- Ben O’Connor shocks everyone, including Ben O’Connor. Quite why Ben O’Connor was allowed to solo away from everyone on Stage 6, dropping a whopping 4:51 on Primož Roglič, is not clear. At the time, even O’Connor seemed genuinely surprised, but having been given the gift, he buried himself to protect the red jersey, surrendering finally on Stage 19. Up to this point, O’Connor had a reputation as a bright talent without the mentality to do the business when it mattered. This Vuelta vanquished that reputation, and in a stronger team (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale didn’t have the climbing strength to protect him day after day), he might have carried the jersey all the way to the end. It will be very interesting to see what he can do with Team Jayco-AlUla next season.
- Marc Soler attacks! The Spaniard didn’t win the mountains jersey. That went to his UAE teammate Jay Vine, but in many ways Soler was the breakout star of this race, attacking day after day after day. He did win the combativity prize (and Stage 16), and it’s no wonder. He was everywhere, pushing the pace, attacking. It made for very entertaining viewing. For obvious reasons, the racers who take the jerseys seek to be judicious in the way they exert themselves, nipping points here and there, and otherwise staying out of trouble. Soler was the trouble in this Vuelta, and he gets a lot of credit for making it fun to watch.
- Kern Pharma arrives? When second tier teams get invited to big races, it’s mainly to make up the numbers and perhaps give some promising riders a bit of experience in the big time. You don’t expect them to win three stages, but that’s what Kern Pharma did. Pablo Castrillo took two of those stages (let the transfer speculation begin) and Urko Berrade took another. There are more than a few UCI WorldTeams that would have been happy with what Kern Pharma pulled off.
- Wout van Aert goes down hard. This headline really should have been about Kaden Groves who took the green sprinters’ jersey, but the Australian, who is undoubtedly very fast, owed much of his win to Wout van Aert crashing on Stage 16 while in green. van Aert, who has been cursed by crashes this season withdrew from the race and won’t be fit enough for the World Championships later this month. There is a reasonable conversation to be had about whether the Belgian needs to race as hard as he does (he crashed while descending with the day’s break), but in the end it’s like discussing whether bumblebees need to have stripes.
