Slovenian Primoz Roglic lived up to expectations and crushed his rivals in the mountains to become the new world champion leader of the Vuelta a España. The Bora rider, with a lot of help from Colombian Daniel Felipe Martínez, reigned at Alto de Moncalvillo and ended the reign of Australian Ben O’Connor in the general classification.
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The first of the last three rounds of the Vuelta a España began today. It was a four-way battle. Ben O’Connor, Primoz Roglic, Richard Carapaz and Enric Mas were at each other’s throats on stage 19, 173.2 km long.
The climb to Alto de Moncalvillo, a first-category mountain prize, was to finish selecting the general classification and begin to define the Vuelta title.
Ben O’Connor, who arrived as leader of the classification after 14 days, could lose the red jersey on terrain that is not his style. He suffered yesterday in the mountains and, in this type of race, he always falters.
Primoz Roglic, the favourite for the crown, was going for the title in a stage he already won in 2020, when he unleashed a relentless fight with Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz, who is also looking for the overall win. Enric Mas, third in the overall standings, wants the title in his homeland.
The breakaway took position after 50 kilometres of racing and managed to ride at around 4 minutes behind the peloton. But Bora did not want to break away and pulled the peloton, the German machinery was working to put Primoz in the lead.
The group made contact at the foot of Alto de Moncalvillo. It was time for the general classification to have a new leader. Colombian Daniel Felipe Martínez was instrumental in setting the pace and break the legs of his rivals.
Less than 5 kilometres from the finish, Primoz Roglic went hunting for the stage and the red jersey, while Ben O’Connor resigned himself to not responding to the attacks and being on the wheel of any friendly hand.
The fireworks began on the mountain, after Roglic it was the turn of the Spaniard Enric Mas who was going full throttle to catch the Slovenian. Richard Carapaz, called to the party on the mountain, could not accelerate due to the maximum effort.
Roglic was very strong on the very tough climb and He gave no respite to his rivals to conquer stage 19 of the Vuelta a España and to put on the red jersey of leader. Enric Mas also did business in the mountains, while O’Connor collapsed.
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