Roglic is already the leader of La Vuelta 2024

First of the two high finishes in the outcome of La Vuelta a España 2024 with the arrival at Moncalvillo, a very tough climb in the Rioja region and that only knows one winner in the two times the race has passed through its ramps: Primoz Roglic. The Slovenian decided not to speculate, seeking to resolve the race today and, being the best time trialist among the general classification riders, unless something unexpected happens tomorrow, it can be said that today he has secured his fourth victory in La Vuelta.

Ben O'Connor's dream in red at La Vuelta comes to an end

Primoz Roglic once again demonstrates, despite the small doubts raised in the stages in Asturias, that he is the best cyclist in La Vuelta a España 2024, and he does it on a day that, despite the tough finish at the top of Moncalvillo, where the race returned after the debut of this arrival in the peculiar 2020 Vuelta, in a stage that had Primoz Roglic and Richard Carapaz as protagonists and that leaned towards the side of the Slovenian.

The stage started in Logroño with a practically flat route, only punctuated by the gentle climb of Pradilla. A day that, initially, could have been expected to fall into the hands of a breakaway again but, in a calm start, the usual suspects of the last few days decided to save their strength for the big stage tomorrow, so the breakaway of the day turned out to be quite cheap, only consisting of 5 riders: Isaac del Toro, Edward Planckaert, Fran Miholjevic, Vitro, Braet, and Simone Peitlli, to whom the peloton never allowed a significant advantage.

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The rest of the stage passed more or less calmly in the peloton, except for some moments of crosswinds after the descent of Pradilla that even caused a small split in the peloton in which Mikel Landa was involved. However, the favorites arrived grouped at the beginning of Moncalvillo with their teams seeking positioning as if preparing for a sprint.

What we did not expect was the brutal pace set by Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe from the bottom, suffocating everyone, even causing Daniel Felipe Martínez to explode with his work for his teammate Florian Lipowitz, which led to a split that Carapaz was unable to close, allowing a gap for the Colombian, Vlasov, and Roglic to follow.

This advantage gradually grew with the rest of the favorites unable to react, and after consuming the effort of their two teammates, Roglic headed towards victory in both the stage and, most likely, in La Vuelta 2024, without the need to attack.

Behind, with the Slovenian already almost half a minute ahead, David Gaudu attacked, as did Carapaz, causing a crisis for Ben O'Connor, although he managed to save a first surge thanks to the invaluable help of a great Valentin Paret-Peintre, at least until the strong attack of an ambitious Enric Mas who tried to close the gap with Roglic as he did a few days ago in the arrival at Cuitu Negru.

Enric Mas timidly began to reduce the gap, although his progress stopped at around 20 seconds before Primoz Roglic increased his advantage again with the arrival of the final, toughest part of the ascent to Moncalvillo. Behind, a group formed with the rest of the top 10 in the general classification except for the leader O'Connor, who struggled and fell behind despite showing progress as in the other high finishes of this Vuelta.

Primoz Roglic crossed the finish line ecstatic, knowing the significant step he has taken towards his fourth victory in La Vuelta, while Enric Mas deflated in the final meters to the point of being caught by both David Gaudu and Mattias Skjelmose. Meanwhile, O'Connor conceded 1:49 to Primoz Roglic but managed to hold on to the second place on the podium by just 26 seconds, which he will try to defend tomorrow.

Stage 19 Classification

1. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) 3h54'55''
2. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) +46''
3. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +46''
4. Enric Mas (Movistar Team) +50''
5. Mikel Landa (TRex-QuickStep) +57''
6. Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) +57''
7. Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla) +1'01''
8. Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) m.t.
9. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) +1'03''
10. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +1'23''

General Classification

1. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) 76h43'36''
2. Ben O'Connor (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +1'54
3. Enric Mas (Movistar Team) +2'20''
4. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) +2'54''
5. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) +4'33''
6. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +4'47''
7. Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) +4'55''
8. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +5'55''
9. Mikel Landa (TRex-QuickStep) +6'40''
10. Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates) +7'39''