Evenepoel wins Vuelta a España as Molano nabs final stage

Remco Evenepoel sealed overall victory in the Vuelta a España on Sunday, finishing safely in a peloton led home by Juan Sebastiàn Molano (UAE Team Emirates).

The final stage to Madrid went down to the expected bunch sprint, with Molano beating green jersey winner Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) to the line.

Ireland’s Sam Bennett will rue missing out on the big sprint finale on the final day. He beat Pedersen twice to win stages two and three, leading the green jersey competition for several days, only to leave the race due to Covid-19.

Evenepoel’s overall victory is the big story, with the 22-year-old scooping the first Grand Tour of his career and, importantly, doing so in a way which points to more success in the years ahead.

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The statistics say a lot: he is the youngest Vuelta winner since Angelino Soler in 1961 and the fourth youngest winner in the whole history of the event. His success is also the first ever Grand Tour win for his Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl team, as well as the first Belgian success since Johan De Muynck won the 1978 Giro d’Italia.

“It really sinks in now, it is really official now,” he said. “Already yesterday [after the final mountain stage] the odds were quite high..well, we were actually there, but you still have to finish the race here safe. Now we can really enjoy it.”

Evenepoel is part of the current wave of young riders landing success in the sport. Jonas Vingegaard, the winner of this year’s Tour de France, is just 25 years of age. Tadej Pogačar, who won the Tour in 2020 and 2021, is still just 23.

Now Evenepoel has joined them as champion of one of cycling’s three Grand Tours. He becomes the first to take the famous Liège-Bastogne-Liège Classic, the Clasica San Sebastian and the Vuelta in the same season.

While neither Vingegaard nor Pogačar competed in the Spanish race, Evenepoel’s victory was an impressive one. He seized the race lead when he finished second on stage 6 and held it ever since then, winning the stage 10 time trial and the mountainous stage 18 for good measure.

He ended the Vuelta a clear two minutes and five seconds ahead of his closest rival, Enric Mas (Movistar Team). The rider in third overall, Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates), was over five minutes behind.

Triple winner Primož Roglič will wonder what might have happened had he not crashed on stage 16. Below par starting the race due to the injury which led to him leaving the Tour de France, he was gaining strength and took time out of Evenepoel on three successive stages, only to crash out at the end of stage 16.

In ways that lessened the drama of the final days, but Evenepoel was still a strong winner of a very competitive race. He leaves La Vuelta a bigger rider than he started it, and may well go head to head with Vingegaard, Pogačar and Roglič in next year’s Tour.

Bennett, too, will aim to be there, chasing the green jersey he won in 2020.