Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) confirmed his overall victory of the 2024 Vuelta a España in the final stage time trial in Madrid, taking second on the day 31 seconds behind stage winner Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) and finishing the 21 stages with a finishing time of 81:49:18.
It was a vintage Roglič performance from start to finish, taking the jersey early on before losing it and fighting all the way to the final two mountain stages where he wrested it back and completed another Spanish redemption after crashing out of the Tour de France in July.
Roglič extended his lead to all his GC rivals but there were no changes to the overall podium, with Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), who led the race for 13 days, holding onto second overall thanks to a strong time trial ahead of Enric Mas (Movistar).
The Australian finished 2:36 down on Roglič but was more than delighted with the finest GC result of his entire career, finally managing the Grand Tour podium he'd been dreaming of after taking fourth at the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia previously.
Mas also managed to net another Grand Tour podium and fourth at the Vuelta thanks to a solid TT by his standards, holding onto third ahead of Richard Carapaz, 3:13 behind Roglič as the pair both completed the 24.6km race against the clock in the same time and the Ecuadorian ended the race a further 49 seconds back.
The biggest change in the top ten was Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) vindicating his ambition to only start the Vuelta this year, moving up to the coveted top five ahead of David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) as the Frenchman faltered around the time trial course. This also confirmed Skjelmose's win of the best young rider classification.
Sixth is still a return to Gaudu's best form which is positive having only shipped 6:32 to Roglič throughout the three weeks.
Rounding out the top 7 of the 2024 race is Roglič's teammate Florian Lipowitz, who was stern in his domestique work for the Slovenian while also confirming he is a great GC prospect at only 23. The young German finished 7:05 down.
Mikel Landa (T-Rex Quick-Step) took up the leadership duties at his new team well, albeit for that one poor stage 18 performance which dropped him out of the top five and podium fight, however, eighth was a strong showing 8:48 off of the lead.
Two teams who would've been disappointed with their top overall finishers were UAE Team Emirates and Ineos Grenadiers, who only managed ninth and tenth through Pavel Sivakov and Carlos Rodriguez respectively, finishing some way down on Roglič at 10:04 and 11:19.
Vuelta a España standings
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