• Classification: This is the general of the Tour
  • Tour: All stages of the Tour of Spain 2019

Primoz Roglic advances along this Vuelta with an official air. He arrives, files, reinforces his leadership, kisses his wife and son and goes to the hotel that corresponds to him every day . He is an ice leader who does not flinch at anything, who only wants to win and who does not strive to be sympathetic or to cement a charism that he does not have or is interested in. When he arrives at the press room after each stage, he tells the communications officer and translator that he will only admit a few questions, maybe five. Without changing his gesture, not a smile is allowed, he answers the questions that arise as soon as possible and when he finishes his last response he gets up and leaves while the translation work continues.

The leader of this Tour has not come to Spain to make friends, but to win his first major, because he fears to keep the stigma of the runner who seemed to eat the world and stayed on the road. And with such transparency he shows his ambition and his confidence in himself that after the stage of Los Machucos , when he was asked if the Cantabrian wall was better than the ports that awaited him in Asturias, he replied that he was all good, so pleasing he feels . It was not bravado but reality and he showed it on his first chance, which gave him the arrival at the Sanctuary of Holly. No one was stronger than him and only Valverde was able to reach the finish line with him.

Roglic is a granitic leader, impossible to take off except unfortunately, although there are still three mountain stages before arriving in Madrid. And such sufficiency show him and his team, the Jumbo-Visma , that allow his gregarious fitter , Sepp Kuss , to take advantage of his presence in the getaway to launch for the stage victory, which he achieves with an amazing authority, instead to stop to help the leader. The 24-year-old American arrives at the finish line , almost asking for 10 more kilometers of port to let go of his legs, bumping his hands with the fans, about to jump on them as if it were a rock concert. The Jumbo plays big and small and takes both.

It is true that Roglic did not increase his difference with the second classified, but it has already been guaranteed that Valverde's is the only wheel to follow in the remainder of Vuelta. This was also done in the ascent to the Sanctuary of Acebo (8 kilometers at almost 10% drop) that crowned a very hard day, with three other first-class ports as an appetizer. The world champion launched his attack almost at the foot of the harbor, when there were seven kilometers left for the goal. Roglic responded immediately and together they made their way, with Soler's punctual help, which unlike Kuss did get off the break. He did, of course, when he had run out of victory options. On this occasion there was no show in front of the cameras, as had happened in Andorra.

Astana commanded the persecution from behind, with Fuglsang emptying generously (as in the entire Tour) in favor of Miguel Ángel López. Nairo Quintana was the main victim of Danish work. The Colombian's lights went out and he had to settle for reaching the finish line with those who aspire to get into the top10 , a minute and a half from Roglic and Valverde, who now is the undisputed leader of Movistar: he takes 2:44 to Nairo in general. The Colombian is also off the fight for third place, which is presumed exciting. Pogacar and López, separated by 17 seconds in the general, reached the finish line together , adding a new attraction to the rest of Vuelta.

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  • sports
  • cycling
  • Back to Spain
  • Alejandro Valverde
  • Primoz Roglic
  • Nairo Quintana
  • Movistar Team

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