Roglič and teammates celebrate historic feat in Madrid
Madrid, 17 September - Primož Roglič took third place overall in the Vuelta a Espana, joining his teammates on the podium in Madrid on Sunday for a historic hat trick of Grand Tour victories for Jumbo Visma this year.
Treviso, Italy
Slovenian cycling champion Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma).
Photo: Anže Malovrh/STA
File photo
American Sepp Kuss won the general classification for his debut Grand Tour victory, ahead of Dane Jonas Vinegegaard and the Slovenian cycling ace.
The Dutch team thus completed an unprecedented achievement of winning all three of Europe's Grand Tours of Italy, France and Spain in the same season.
Roglič took the the Giro's pink jersey to Rome in May, Vingegaard took the yellow jersey to Paris in July and now Kuss, who loyally helped them both to their victories, is wearing red in Madrid.
Kuss put on the leader's jersey in stage 8 to turn from a helper into a third leader of the black and yellow team. Even if they often did not seem to be of the same mind, both Roglič and Vinegegaard did help the American to keep the red jersey.
Going into the Vuelta, Kuss had been part of Jumbo-Visma's all six victories in the general classifications. He helped Roglič win the Vuelta three times in 2019, 2020 and 2021 and the Giro this year, as he did Vingegaard on his way to win the Tour de France back to back.
Kuss finished the race with a 17 second gap on Vingegaard and 1:08 minutes clear of Roglič. The trio crossed the finish line together, like they did in the penultimate stage, offering photographers plenty of photo opportunities.
While the race had been largely decided yesterday, the final stage, which took the riders through the streets of the Spanish capital, went to Australian Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
Roglič, the 33-year-old Slovenian rider, celebrated his seventh Grand Tour podium. Apart from winning the Giro once and the Vuelta three times, he also finished the Tour second in 2020 when his compatriot Tadej Pogačar won the race for the first time, and placed third in the 2019 Giro.
He took two stage victories at this year's Vuelta to chalk up 79 career victories, of which 14 this year. Except for the Vuelta, he has won all the races he appeared in this season. Apart from the Giro, he also reigned victorious at the Tirreno - Adriatico, the Volta a Catalunya and the Vuelta a Burgos.
Apart from him, three other Slovenian riders completed the 21-stage race between Barcelona and Madrid, Roglič's teammate Jan Tratnik, as well as Matevž Govekar (Bahrain Victorious) and Domen Novak (UAE Team Emirates).