Primoz Roglic has changed in this Vuelta a España.

During his first tour of Spain two years ago, the Slovenian still looked like a model student who screwed up his Abitur exam and doggedly wants to take the exam at the second attempt, and last year he was mainly driven by the pain of the missed Tour victory, so conveyed This year he got the impression that he enjoyed cycling.

“Hey, that was a fantastic race to watch,” he said after his 60 kilometer breakaway attempt on Lagos de Covadonga. He could be sure of the approval of the small crowd of observers at the Vuelta. Because his stage win on this 17th day of the Vuelta was a real bravura. It not only brought Roglic back to the leader's red jersey. It also opened a lot of cycling hearts for him, including those who had previously assessed the Slovenes, who have now achieved the third coup in Spain after winning the final individual time trial on Sunday, as dogged detail fetishists and second stealers.

In this queen stage of the Vuelta over a total of three peaks, he was already on the heels of Egan Bernal 60 kilometers from the finish.

The 2019 tour winner and Giro triumphant of this year as well as the Vuelta dominator of recent years made their way through the mountains of Cantabria together.

The duo collected the runaways of the day.

In the end, Roglic also left Bernal, so to speak.

"The course is harder"

“It wasn't planned that way at all. I just followed Bernal at first. I didn't think about it, I just kept moving the pedals, there was still a long way to go, ”said Roglic afterwards - and the joy of his successful stroke was unmistakable. "I just wanted to finish quickly," he said and grinned happily under the mask. Roglic also obviously enjoyed the turbulent 20th stage of this Vuelta. Oscar Pereiro, 2006 Tour winner, had drawn a very undulating course for Saturday in the coastal landscape of his Galician homeland.

"The course is like the classic Liège - Bastogne - Liège, only more difficult," is how he himself characterized the route. "It offers a lot of ambushes," he added. The Brits of Ineos Grenadiers first shook the field of favorites at a rapid pace to get Bernal, the man in white, onto the podium. Instead of him, only the poorly placed team-mate Adam Yates made it into the emerging group. That was brought forward by the brave Swiss Gino Mäder. The 23-year-old catapulted his captain Jack Haig into third place overall. Mäder herself fell into the white jersey from the suspended Bernal.

And the also distant Miguel Angel López, who was still third in the overall ranking on Saturday afternoon, even got out completely unnerved. Roglic remained sovereign in the midst of the turmoil. He took part in the decisive attacks and sprinted to second place for the day, gaining a few seconds over his most important rivals. “You can't always win,” he magnanimously commented on the day's victory for surprise man Clement Champoussin. This remark, of course, only referred to stages. The Slovenian likes to win the tours himself.

At this Vuelta he left no doubt early on how serious he is with the third overall win in a row.

From the start, Roglic was at the forefront.

He won the opening time trial in the shadow of Burgos Cathedral.

He was the patron who decided when which breakaway group was allowed to go for how long.

He developed into the conductor of power control.

Bonus seconds through placements

Because the men's teams, to whom he has meanwhile given the red jersey, made sure that his own helpers could save energy.

The Belgian second division partner Intermarché Wanty Gobert stood out in particular.

The team had two men, the Estonian Rein Taramäe and the Norwegian Odd Christian Eiking, in the top position for several days each.

When the mountains got steeper, Roglic was always there. Two mountain stages won, plus three second places in the mountains and also the second day placement on Saturday on the 20th stage speak a clear language. The top placements also earned him 44 seconds of bonus seconds. Because the Olympic time trial champion was also undisputed in his specialty, nobody could hold a candle to him. A real master of all classes.