SPAIN. Santiago de Compostela: Primoz Roglic won the stage 21 time trial at Santiago de Compostela to become the third cyclist to win 2021 Vuelta a Espana General Classification three times in a row. He covered the distance of 33.8km from Padrón to Santiago de Compostela, in record time setting a lead by 4 minutes, 42 seconds over Enric Mas of team ‘Movistar’ to win the red jersey. Jack Haig of team ‘Bahrain Victorious’ finished third. Fabio Jakobsen won the points classification, Michael Storer the mountains classification, and Gino Mäder won the young riders’ classification.
Roglic’s journey through the race
Earlier in the race, the Slovenian opened his account by winning the stage 1 time trial to take the first leader’s jersey in Burgos. He lost the race lead after stage 3 to Rein Taaramae in Picón Blanco, and the jersey then moved onto the shoulders of Kenny Elissonde at the end of stage 5 in Albacete. Roglic took the red jersey back after finishing second on stage 6 on Alto de la Montaña de Cullera and held it through the next three mountain stages.
He then crashed on the final descent of stage 10 and the red jersey went to Odd Christian Eiking in Rincón de la Victoria, who would keep the jersey for the next week of racing. Roglic took the overall race lead back with a stellar performance on stage 17 to Lagos de Covadonga and he maintained his lead through the final time trial on stage 21 at Santiago de Compostela.
Primoz Roglic
Born on October 29, 1989, Primoz Roglic, the Slovenian cyclist started his professional career as a ski jumper. He took part in his first FIS-sanctioned competition at the age of 13 and later went on to win two FIS Continental Cup events, and team gold and silver at the Junior World Championships. Roglic quit ski jumping and took up cycling in 2012 after he suffered a crash during official training at Letalnica bratov Gorišek in Planica, Slovenia in the year 2007.
He began cycling professionally in 2013 and rode with team Radenska, where he was coached by former professional cyclist Andrej Hauptman, who helped him develop his bike handling skills. By 2016 Roglic joined team Jumbo-Visma, based in the Netherlands. At the 2017 ‘Tour de France’, Roglič became the first Slovenian to win a stage and in 2019, Roglič became the first Slovenian to win ‘Vuelta a España’. He has also finished third at ‘Giro d’Italia’ the same year. In 2020 ‘Tour de France’ he secured the second position. He won ‘Vuelta a España’ in 2020 also. He was the world’s No.1 road cyclist in the UCI World Ranking, holding the title for 75 weeks.
After winning the Olympic time trial title at Tokyo 2020, Slovenia’s Roglic now has added a third consecutive Vuelta a España overall win to his growing list of achievements.
Vuelta a España Final General Classification
- Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo-Visma), Time taken: 83:55:29s
- Enric Mas Nicolau (Team Movistar), Time taken: 0:04:42s
- Jack Haig (Team Bahrain Victorious), Time taken: 0:07:39s
- Adam Yates (Team Ineos Grenadiers), Time taken: 0:09:06s
- Gino Mäder (Team Bahrain Victorious), Time taken: 0:11:33s
- Egan Bernal Gomez (Team Ineos Grenadiers), Time taken: 0:13:37s
- David de la Cruz (Team UAE Team Emirates), Time taken: 0:18:32s
- Sepp Kuss (Team Jumbo-Visma), Time taken: 0:18:54s
- Guillaume Martin (Team Cofidis), Time taken: 0:20:26s
- Felix Großschartner (Team Bora-Hansgrohe), Time taken: 0:22:21s
Final Points Classification
- Fabio Jakobsen (Team Deceuninck-QuickStep) – 250pts
- Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo-Visma) – 199pts
- Magnus Cort (Team EF Education-Nippo) – 161pts
- Matteo Trentin (Team UAE Team Emirates) – 145pts
- Enric Mas Nicolau (Team Movistar Team) – 120pts
- Alberto Dainese (Team Team DSM) – 120pts
- Michael Matthews (Team BikeExchange) – 114pts
- Andrea Bagioli (Team Deceuninck-QuickStep) – 101pts
- Egan Bernal Gomez (Team Ineos Grenadiers) – 96pts
- Arnaud Demare (Team Groupama-FDJ) – 91pts
Final Mountains Classification
- Michael Storer (Team DSM) – 80
- Romain Bardet (Team DSM) – 61
- Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo-Visma) – 51
- Damiano Caruso (Team Bahrain Victorious) – 33
- Rafal Majka (UAE Team Emirates) – 33
- Jack Haig (Team Bahrain Victorious) – 23
- Sepp Kuss (Team Jumbo-Visma) – 19
- Enric Mas Nicolau (Team Movistar Team) – 17
- Egan Bernal Gomez (Team Ineos Grenadiers) – 16
- Fabio Aru (Team Qhubeka NextHash) – 16
Vuelta a España Final Young Rider Classification
- Gino Mäder (Team Bahrain Victorious), Time taken: 84:07:02s
- Egan Bernal Gomez (Team Ineos Grenadiers), Time taken: 0:01:54s
- Juan Pedro Lopez Perez (Team Trek-Segafredo), Time taken: 0:19:48s
- Rémy Rochas (Team Cofidis), Time taken: 0:40:59s
- Clément Champoussin (Team AG2R Citroën Team), Time taken: 0:45:56s
- Steff Cras (Team Lotto Soudal), Time taken: 1:10:33s
- Jefferson Cepeda Ortiz (Team Caja Rural – Seguros RGA), Time taken: 1:47:21s
- Pavel Sivakov (Team Ineos Grenadiers), Time taken: 1:53:14s
- Gotzon Martin Sanz (Team Euskaltel – Euskadi), Time taken: 1:59:06s
- Michael Storer (Team DSM), Time taken: 2:11:12s
About Vuelta a Espana
The Vuelta a España is an annual multi-stage bicycle race primarily held in Spain. Inspired by the success of the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France, the race was first organized in 1935. Vuelta a España 2021 is a three-week cycling race that took place in Spain between 14 August and 5 September 2021. It is the 76th edition of the Vuelta a España and the third and final grand tour of the 2021 men’s road cycling season. The race departed from Burgos and will finish in Santiago de Compostela.
Twenty-three teams participated in the race this year. The Uci World teams that participated are AG2R Citroën Team, Astana–Premier Tech, Team Bahrain Victorious, Bora–Hansgrohe, Cofidis, Deceuninck–Quick-Step, EF Education–Nippo, Groupama–FDJ, Ineos Grenadiers, Intermarché–Wanty–Gobert , Matériaux, Israel Start-Up Nation, Lotto–Soudal, Movistar Team, Team BikeExchange, Team DSM, Team Jumbo–Visma, Team Qhubeka NextHash
Trek–Segafredo and UAE Team Emirates. The four UCI ProTeams that participated are Alpecin–Fenix, Burgos BH, Caja Rural–Seguros RGA and Euskaltel–Euskad.
The Vuelta a España has four individual classifications, for which jerseys were awarded daily to the leading rider, as well as a team competition. The classifications are general classification, points classification, mountains classification, and young rider classification. There is also a team classification and lastly, there is one individual award called the combativity award.
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