Kuss officially won the red shirt, after the run the last stage the green shirt

The final stage from the Zarzuela Racecourse to nine laps, 5.8 km long in the center of Madrid, brought an unexpected story. There was nothing from the sprint battle of the main body, instead a breakaway of six strong riders succeeded, in which in the end the best sprinter of La Vuelte 23 was the strongest Kaden Groves.

The epic escape of the heavyweights for the end

The caravan used the first 45 kilometers for toasting and taking photos, upon arrival at the city circle around Cibeles square however, the winning Jumbo Visma team withdrew and the show began as in the criteria.

With seven laps to go, Remco Evenepoel attacked, covered by the green jersey Kaden Groves and time trial grandmaster Filippo Ganna, then joined by Nico Denz and Lennart Kämna and Rui Costa.

With an advantage of 15-20 seconds, the six persevered until the last lap and kilometer, in which, with the majority on their backs, the breakaways still settled with each other for stage glory. Groves celebrated the third stage, Ganna was second again and Denz was third, after which the fastest of the main group lined up.

Suffered more in Madrid than in England

Two other members of Jumba Visma finished on the winner’s podium alongside Seppu Kuss: Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič, who will add a third place to his three victories at the Vuelta. In total, this is the seventh podium for Roglič in the three-week races!

“Wonderful. I suffered the most on the last stage, so I’m overjoyed that it’s over. I suffered more in Madrid than in England,” laughed at the winner of the 78th Race of Spain after crossing the finish line, but he guarantees that he will not chase new successes in the overall totals: “It won’t change me at all. I’ll still be the way I am. Of course, this is a big life event. I’ll remember this experience with pleasure. I don’t think I’ve understood what’s happening yet, it’s going to be like that for a while. Now we will celebrate properly, my family and friends are also here. It will be nice to remember all the good moments in recent weeks together with them and my teammates and team staff.”

Bees and Kuss into cycling history

Jumbo Visma is the first team to win all three three-week tests in one year, after Roglič won the Tour of Italy and Vingegaard the Tour of France. Kuss wore the red jersey of the leader after the eighth stage, then he did a perfect time trial and kept his lead even on the long and steep climbs, such as Tourmalet and Angliru. Then the team bosses decided that the free hands and feet and attacking each other were over.

For the second time in the history of the three-week race, the entire victory podium is occupied by riders from the same team, previously only the Spanish team managed to do this Kas–Kaskol on La Vuelta 1966, when they even had six riders in the top seven in a heavily diluted competition. For good measure, Jumbo Visma also won the special team classification, with a 22-minute lead over Bahrain Victorious.

At the finish line, all four Slovenians

Of course, he contributed his part to the success of the Dutch team Jan Tratnikwho finished in 38th place, while the remaining Slovenians were at the bottom of the ranking. Matevž Govekar finished his first three-week run in 133rd place, Domain Novak however, on his sixth Grand Tour, he slipped to 138th place on the very last day

In a long and rich cycling history, Kuss became only the second cyclist to ride all three Grand Tours in a season and win one of them. Before the American, only the Italian managed such a miraculous feat to Gastone Nencini distant in 1957. He was ninth in the Tour of Spain, then won his home Tour of Italy, and then sixth in the Tour of France.

All white shirts emirates

If Jumbo Visma managed to win all the three-week races with three different riders, the UAE Emirates team managed to win the white jersey for the best young rider with three riders: Joao Almeida (Giro), Tadej Pogačar (Tour) and Juan Ayuso (Vuelta). The latter just turned 21 years old and, with fourth place, is the best Spaniard on his home Grand Tour.

Dotted to last year’s champion, the Australian first sprinter

A total eclipse in the Tourmalet stage eliminated him Remce Evenepoel from trying to defend last year’s overall victory. The 23-year-old Belgian consoled himself with the polka-dot shirt for the best hillclimber and with as many as three stage victories for the Soudal QuickStep team. The green jersey by points for the best sprinter became the property of the Australian Groves’ tubwhose Alpecin Deceuninck team also won the green jersey at the Tour de France this year.

78. RACE ACROSS SPAIN

Last, 21st, stage: Hipodromo de la Zarzuela–Madrid, 101.5 km

The final order after the 21st stage

  1. S. KUSS            ZDA   76:48:21 
  2. J. VINGEGAARD      DAN      +0:17 
  3. P. ROGLIČ          SLO       1:08 
  4. J. AYUSO           ŠPA       3:25 
  5. M. LANDA           ŠPA       3:44 
  6. E. MAS             ŠPA       4:14 
  7. A. VLASOV          RUS       8:06 
  8. C. UIJTDEBROEKS    BEL       8:13 
  9. J. ALMEDIA         POR      10:08 
 10. S. BUITRAGO        KOL      11:51 
 11. S. CRASS           BEL      14:17 
 12. R. EVENEPOEL       BEL      16:44 
 ...                                   
 38. J. TRATNIK         SLO    1:57:16 
133. M. GOVEKAR         SLO    4:04:42 
138. D. NOVAK           SLO    4:08:58