Stefan Küng achieves the big win at the end of the 79th Tour of Spain. The rider from Thurgau celebrates his first Grand Tour stage win in the final time trial through Madrid.
Stefan Küng has often stood on the podium in his main discipline in major races, often coming very close to victory. But it was never enough for him to make it big - until Sunday.
On the 21st and final stage of the 79th Tour of Spain, nobody was faster than the rider from Thurgau. Wearing the jersey of the Swiss champion, Küng was in a class of his own on the 24.6 km through the streets of Spain's capital. He distanced second-placed Primoz Roglic by 31 seconds in a time of 26:28 minutes.
Roglic on a par with Roberto Heras
Roglic, for his part, was crowned overall winner of the Vuelta for the fourth time after 2019, 2020 and 2021. The Slovenian thus caught up with record winner Roberto Heras, who also won four times in the 2000s. Joining Roglic on the podium in Madrid were Australian Ben O'Connor, who had been riding in the red leader's jersey for almost two weeks until Friday, and Spaniard Enric Mas.
With Roglic's victory, a Slovenian also triumphed in the last Grand Tour of the year. Tadej Pogacar had won the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France. The last time the British riders Chris Froome (Giro), Geraint Thomas (Tour) and Simon Yates (Vuelta) had won all the grand tours in one year was in 2018.
Schmid also with a top result
Meanwhile, Küng secured the first stage win for a Swiss rider in a Tour of Spain since 2016, when Mathias Frank won the 17th stage.
Mauro Schmid, the second Swiss participant in this Vuelta, also achieved a top result at the end. The Zurich rider, who twice came close to winning the stage in 13th and 18th place, finished the stage in a strong fifth place, 46 seconds behind Küng in the battle against the clock.
SDA
