In the spectral setting of the Plataforma de Gredos, the last high altitude finish line before today's final catwalk in Madrid, the Vuelta celebrates the triumph of Slovenian cycling with Primoz Roglic, who effortlessly defended his red jersey conquered in the Pau time trial, and Tadej Pogacar who takes an amazing trio with a solitary feat and bares Nairo Quintana from the podium. In second place, between the two Slovenians, is the timeless Alejandro Valverde, the reigning world champion, who thus achieves his seventh podium in the great Spanish stage race, sixteen years after the first achieved with third place in the 2003.
All 'en plein of Slovenians negatively counterbalanced by the disappointing behavior of the Colombians who – unlucky with Rigoberto Uran knocked out by a frightening fall in the first part of the Vuelta – bet everything on the Lopez-Quintana duo, two of the strongest climbers around. But Quintana, after a first week in which he shone by winning a stage and also wearing the red jersey at Cortals d'Encamp (where Pogacar scored his first success), paid his dues in the Pau time trial by losing 3 dry minutes from Roglic and in the following days, thanks to a flu condition, he suffered right on the mountains that should have seen him as the protagonist.
Back in the podium area thanks to the maxi-break in Guadalajara, Quintana was unable to defend himself yesterday from the attack in the final by Pogacar, also losing the wheels of Roglic, Valverde and Majka. Worse than him did Lopez, despite the work of all of Astana that the Colombian has never been able to finalize in the many mountain stages, so much so that yesterday he also lost the white jersey of youth leader in favor of Pogacar. The Giro for the first time to an Ecuadorian, Richard Carapaz, the Tour for the first time to a Colombian, Egan Bernal, the Vuelta for the first time to a Slovenian: British dominance interrupted, also due to the serious injury of Chris Froome in the Giro del Dauphiné, world cycling is about to archive – two major events such as the world championship and Lombardy are still missing – a turning point both geographically and above all on a generational level with three blossoming gems called Bernal, Pogacar and the Belgian Remco Evenepoel, the predestined leaders of a new season of challenges that promise great feats.
