Vuelta a España 2019 – Stage 21 Preview

Impressive win by Pogacar yesterday, who managed to succesfully solo his way into the podium!

With the Vuelta coming to its end we can say that it has been a hugely succesfull adventure for the riders of Jumbo Visma. They take their third (!) podium spot in a grand-tour this year and their first grand tour win! Roglic has been riding an incredibly solid race and has clearly learned from his earlier experiences in the Giro. Very promising for next year, and it also implicates a lot of difficult decisions for the Jumbo Visma management!

The Route:

What Paris is for the Tour, is Madrid for the Vuelta. Traditionally the last stage takes us to Madrid. They are a bit less consistent in this than their French counterparts, because sporadically they finish else (the last time being in 2014 when they finished with a time-trial in Santiago de Compostella).

With that said: we are obviously up for a royal sprint today!

Be at the front with your lead-out train in the final turn at around 1200 meters out and you will get a chance to sprint! From there on it will be a drag-race to the finish line.

The Weather:

Rain and a light breeze with cross tailwind in the final kilometer. Could make the sprint somewhat chaotic, but we still expect the fastest rider to win given the nature of the final kilometers.

The Favorites:

Sam Bennett
It’s hard to see him lose this one.

Fernando Gaviria
Dragged himself over the climbs for a reason. One of the few with the potential to challenge Bennett, but he has been hiding that potential for last 20 stages.

Fabio Jakobsen
Will lack his lead-out man Richeze who suffers from an earlier crash. Will like this type of finish and should come closest to beating Bennett on the finish line.

Walscheid/Theuns/Degenkolb/Sarreau/Aberasturi/Venturini/Boasson-Hagen
Will challenge for top-10 spots, probably not for the win.

Note to our readers:

We truely enjoyed serving you with our daily previews during the Vuelta. We hope it helped animate the race, and it would be even better if our previews helped some of you make some decent money at the bookmakers!

We will be back for the World Championships, Il Lombardia, and some previews for the 2020 season.

Muchos gracias por leer y hasta pronto!

The Winner:

The irish rocket Sam Bennett to win the stage.