Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) claimed a dominant victory in the closing ITT of La Vuelta 24, with a time of 26’28’’ to cover the 24.6km in Madrid. Nobody came close to the Swiss powerhouse, who gave his team their first Grand Tour stage win since 2022. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) set the second best time of the day (+31’’) to seal a historic fourth overall triumph after his successes in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Nobody has won La Vuelta more than the Slovenian star. His runner-up Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) also makes history with the best Australian result in the Spanish Grand Tour while Enric Mas (Movistar) steps on the overall podium for the fourth time in his career.
La Vuelta 24 reaches Madrid to conclude the 79th edition with an ITT (24.6km) celebrating the 100th anniversary of Telefonica. Tim Naberman (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL) will be the first rider off the ramp, at 16:30, some 2 hours and half before Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) starts his last effort to claim a historic fourth overall victory in the Spanish Grand Tour.
Early references
Thibault Guernalec (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) rides past Naberman, Ide Schelling (Astana Qazaqstan) and Kamil Gradek (Bahrain Victorious) to be the first finisher, with a time of 27’43’’. That’s a strong reference but he is quickly beaten by Edoardo Affini (Visma-Lease a Bike): 27’33’’.
The Italian stayed for a long time on the hotseat of the opening time trial, three weeks earlier in Portugal. But this time, he is quickly beaten by Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny), with a time of 27’22’’. Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) is even faster (27’14’’) but he can’t resist Filippo Baroncini (UAE Team Emirates), who finished strongly to set a reference of 27’11’’.
Küng and Roglic crowned
Baroncini’s time is impressive but Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) flies over the course, covering the 24.6km at an average of 55.8km/h to smash the best time: 26’28’’. That’s 43’’ faster than Baroncini! And nobody will come close to that time.
In the GC battle, Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) quickly proved to be the strongest, eventually powering to the 2nd best time on the day, 31’’ behind Küng. Ben O’Connor (Decathlong AG2R La Mondiale) also impressed (11th, +1’05’’) to retain the 2nd place ahead of Enric Mas (Movistar).
Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) was slightly faster (8th, +1’02’’) to claim the 5th place from David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and become the first Danish winner of a best young rider standing in a Grand Tour.
