Vuelta 2024 Route stage 21: Madrid

Vuelta 2024 Route stage 21: Madrid - Madrid

Sunday 17 September - The final stage of the Vuelta a España is an ITT in front of roaring city crowds. Not the tried-and-tested finishing circuit in Madrid, but a chronorace of 22 kilometres in the centre of Spain.

La Vuelta returns to Madrid for its final stage. But not the usual format, which usually boils down to a regular bunch sprint, although Nico Denz, Lennard Kämna, Rui Costa, Remco Evenepoel, Filippo Ganna and Kaden Groves had other plans last year. The six held the charging peloton at bay, until they were finalle caught with only 600 metres left. But, what the heck, no, Remco Evenepoel kicked again. Groves jumped to his wheel and opened the sprint early. He held off Ganna with a half bike length and took his third stage win on La Vuelta, plus he sealed the points competition triumh.

It was a spectacular finale of a race that was dominated by Jumbo-Visma (now Visma Rent a Bike) for three weeks. The Dutch squad did a clean sweep and occupied the podium with three riders: Sepp Kuss, Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic.

Let’s hope the GC riders will give the same kind of show in Madrid as the six attackers did last year. A Vuelta with a battle for red until the very end, the organisers must be dreaming of it. And so are we.