'He throws it out there, rides aggressively and looks for opportunities where a lot of other GC guys don't which is a great talent to have and an exciting way to race' says Jayco-AlUla's Matt White
Michael Woods wins stage 13 of the Vuelta a España up to Puerto de Ancares(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Pablo Castrillo wins stage 12 of the Vuelta a España from the breakaway(Image credit: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)
Eddie Dunbar outfoxes the breakaway with a late attack into Padrón to win stage 11(Image credit: Getty Images)
Stage winner Wout van Aert celebrates his third Vuelta victory in Baiona on stage 10(Image credit: Getty Images)
Stage 9 winner Adam Yates of UAE Team Emirates celebrates at podium with Polka dot Mountain Jersey and vaults into top 10 of GC(Image credit: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)
Stage winner Primož Roglič of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe finishes ahead of Enric Mas of Team Movistar and takes back almost a minute in the GC on leader O'Connor(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Wout van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike wins stage 7 in the Green Points Jersey(Image credit: Getty Images)
Ben OConnor of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale celebrates as stage 6 winner and takes over GC lead(Image credit: Getty Images)
Pavel Bittner won stage 5(Image credit: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)
Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) won the stage 4 summit finish at Pico Villuercas to take the overall lead(Image credit: Getty Images)
Wout van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike wins stage 3 to extend his lead in the Red Leader Jersey(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Primož Roglič won a fourth Vuelta a España title on Sunday evening, sealing his fifth Grand Tour title in six years with a second-place finish in the final stage time trial in Madrid.
One of only two riders to break the 27-minute barrier, Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) won the final time trial with a blistering time of 26:28 on the 24.6km course. It marked the Swiss rider's first-ever stage victory in a Grand Tour after a string of second places in recent years.
Eddie Dunbar (Jayco AlUla) conquered the queen stage of the 2024 Vuelta a España, launching a move out of the group of GC favourites with 5km to go and powering solo to the line after catching and dropping lone attacking Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates).
Enric Mas (Movistar) managed second on the stage ahead of Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), however, his time gain was minimal, only beating him by three seconds on the day and cutting the Slovenian's advantage by just nine seconds thanks to bonus seconds.
Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) made his decisive move in the race for the overall Vuelta a España on stage 19 as he took solo victory on the summit finish of Alto de Moncalvillo and moved into race lead. Attacking with 4.8km from the top of the climb, after powerful teamwork from Daniel Martinez and Alexandr Vlazov, Roglič soloed to the win by 46 seconds ahead of David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek).
Roglič now leads the overall GC by 1:54 ahead of overnight leader Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), who was distanced on the climb and lost valuable time to Roglič, but remains in second place overall.
Urko Berrade (Kern Pharma) soloed in from the day's large breakaway to win a third Vuelta a España stage for his team on stage 18. The GC standings remained largely the same but Mikel Landa (T Rex-Quickstep) was dropped on the category 1 Puerto Herrera and slipped five places down into 10th. Ben O'Connor held onto his five-second lead over Primož Roglič.
Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) took his third sprint win at the 2024 Vuelta a España after a rain-soaked, nail-biting chase into Santander, beating Pavel Bittner (DSM-firmenich PostNL) and Vito Braet (Intermarché-Wanty).
The peloton caught what was left of an all-day breakaway of four in the closing kilometres, where Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) then made a last-ditch attack for the win, but he too was caught in the final few hundred metres and finished in sixth.
After a trio of third-place finishes at this year's Vuelta a España, Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) earned the victory on stage 16. He rode away from Filippo Zana (Jayco-AlUla) and Max Poole (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) in the final 7km of the steep climb to Lagos de Covadonga, leaving Zana to take second and Poole third.
Race leader Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale ) fought hard on the climb and retained the red leader’s jersey by just five seconds. Points and mountains classification leader Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) crashed with under 50km to go and withdrew from the race.
Pablo Castrillo put in a stunning ride to win stage 15 atop the Cuitu Negru from a three-rider breakaway. Ben O'Connor survived the stage to keep the red jersey but lost 38 seconds to Primož Roglič and Enric Mas on the stage.
The sprinters made a surprise return after a category 1 climb with 16km to go, with Kaden Groves out-sprinting Wout van Aert to win his second stage. The GC did not change.
While Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) may not win often, when he does, he wins big. Today was no different at the Vuelta a España as he launched away from the remnants of the day’s breakaway 4.8km from the line to conquer the Puerto de Ancares summit finish solo on stage 13.
More than 10 minutes down the climb, Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) attacked from the GC group and eventually dropped everyone, including race leader Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), cutting his deficit down to just 1:21.
Pablo Castrillo took the win of his life and of Equipo Kern Pharma’s existence on stage 12 of the Vuelta a España, emerging as the victor after launching a stunning attack from the breakaway 10km from the finish to Estacion de Montaña de Manzaneda.
Race leader Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) safely crossed the line in the large group of GC favourites 6:29 down on Castrillo after letting the 10-man break of the day build the lead with 110km to go.
In a thrilling end to a breathless breakaway fight at the Vuelta a España, Eddie Dunbar (Jayco AlUla) outfoxed his fellow escapees with a perfectly-timed attack in the final kilometre to take victory on stage 11 in Padrón, his first at a Grand Tour.
Behind the break, Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) attacked on the final climb and distanced Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), with the race leader losing 37 seconds to a group containing many of his GC rivals.
Wout van Aert claimed his third stage win of the 2024 Vuelta, this time getting into a breakaway and then riding his final companion - Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) off his wheel in the final kilometre. The win pushed him further into the lead of the points classification over Kaden Groves. Race leader Ben O'Connor finished in the peloton to hold onto the red jersey.
Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) used a long-range attack across the two ascents of the Alto de Hazallanas for a solo victory on stage 9. The climbing demonstration launched him back into GC contention, moving 20 places up the standings to seventh overall. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) finished alone in second place and he also moved into the top 10.
Red jersey Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) finished third, riding ahead of favourite Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), and retained the race lead.
Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) captured his second stage win of the week at the Vuelta a España, taking the stage 8 victory at the top of Sierra de Cazorla. He distanced more importantly, put nearly a minute into race leader Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale).
After taking bonus seconds on Friday to begin to claw back the near-five-minute deficit that had yawned open during O’Connor’s stage 6 raid, Roglič was rewarded with even greater inroads on stage 8 with another aggressive display.
Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) won the much reduced bunch sprint on stage 7 to Cordoba, out-sprinting Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) and Pau Miquel (Kern Pharma) after the late climb of Alto Del obliterated the peloton.
Ben O'Connor (Decathlon-AG2R) remained in the race lead but lost six seconds to Primož Roglič in the time bonus sprint atop the Alto Del.
Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) soloed to victory across the final 26km on a mountainous stage 6 and vaulted into the GC lead at the 2024 Vuelta a España. Trailing in solo second was Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech), while Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) led a four-rider chase group for third. Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) came across the finish in the peloton more than six minutes behind O'Connor, and is now second overall, 4:51 down.
Pavel Bittner (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL) stunned the Vuelta a España on stage 5, beating green jersey holder Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) in a photo-finish bunch sprint in Sevilla to take his third win of the season and the third win of his young career.
Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) remains in the race lead after the stage with no changes to the top of the leaderboard.
Three-time winner and overall favourite Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) scored his 13th career stage win atop Pico Villuercas to take over the race lead in the process. The Slovenian beat Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Dstny) in a close sprint at the finish of the race's first summit finish.
Roglič led home a seven-man lead group at the end of the 170.5km stage and now leads the GC by eight seconds from João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) while Enric Mas (Movistar) lies in third place at 32 seconds. Reigning champion Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease A Bike) finished in 11th place and now lies 1:14 off the race lead.
Race leader Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) reversed fortunes from one day ago and this time outsprinted Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) for the stage 3 victory. Jon Aberasturi (Euskaltel-Euskadi) sailed past Arne Marit (Intermarché-Wanty) to grab third place in the bunch finish in Castelo Branco.
The Belgian padded his GC lead to 13 seconds over Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) and 15 seconds over Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek). He also took the green jersey away from Groves, having finished fifth on the only intermediate sprint for 10 points and giving him eight more than the Australian.
Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) sprinted to his first win this year on stage 2 in Ourém, crossing the line ahead of Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease A Bike) and Corbin Strong (Israel-Premiertech). By taking the bonus seconds for his second place, Van Aert takes over the general classification lead with three seconds on stage 1 winner Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates), and five seconds on best young rider Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek).
American TT champion Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) set the fastest time on the opening stage 1 time trial and claimed the first red jersey on Saturday. His time of 12:35 on the 12km route was two seconds faster that Czech TT champion Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek). Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease A Bike) took third, three seconds slower than the fastest time.
2024 Vuelta a España overview
The 2024 Vuelta a España celebrates its 79th edition this year with its first start in neighbouring Portugal since 1997 on Saturday, August 17 in Lisbon and finishing in the Spanish capital, Madrid on Sunday, September 8.
Race organisers Unipublic have created a typically ultra-mountainous route with an opening and concluding time trial, nine summit finishes. With the exception of stage 9 through the mountains of Sierra Nevada, most of the toughest stages are concentrated in the second half of the race.
2023 championSepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike)will be present in the 2024 Vuelta and is aiming for a repeat overall victory.
Other top names include - subject to confirmation - triple Vuelta a España winner Primoz Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates), 20216 Vuelta champion Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), Aleksandre Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates)
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Vuelta a España route
The 2024 Vuelta a España (Image credit: Unipublic)
Most overall wins: Roberto Heras (four); Primoz Roglič, Tony Rominger, Alberto Contador (three).
Most stage wins: Delio Rodríguez (39); Alessandro Petacchi (20); Laurent Jalabert, Rik van Looy (18); Sean Kelly (16); Gerben Karstens (14); Tony Rominger, Freddy Maertens (13); Primoz Roglič, Alejandro Valverde (12).
Most mountain classification wins: Jose Luis Laguía (five); David Moncoutie, Jose María Jiménez (four); Julio Jiménez, Anthony Karmany, Andres Oliva (three).
Most points classification wins: Sean Kelly, Laurent Jalabert, Alejandro Valverde (four); Erik Zabel (three).
Most starts: Inigo Cuesta (17).
Youngest winner: Angelino Soler, 1961 (21 years and 167 days).
Oldest winner: Chris Horner, 2013 (41 years and 327 days).
Smallest margin of victory: Erik Caritoux, 1984 (six seconds).
Largest margin of victory: Delio Rodríguez, 1945 (30:08).
'He throws it out there, rides aggressively and looks for opportunities where a lot of other GC guys don't which is a great talent to have and an exciting way to race' says Jayco-AlUla's Matt White
