Van Vleuten was the first to secure victory, early on Sunday afternoon, after four days of racing in Galicia, with the first three stages raced around the ski resort of Montaña de Manzaneda before the stars of the UCI Women’s WorldTour headed to Santiago de Compostela. The Dutch rider had a gap of almost two minutes to overturn after Marlen Reusser (Ale’ BTC Ljubljana) won stage 1 from the breakaway, carrying the form that saw her take the silver medal in the Tokyo 2020 individual time trial and shine in both the Ladies Tour of Norway (4th) and the Simac Ladies Tour (2nd).
But Van Vleuten rose to the challenge with two spectacular victories on days two and three. First, she dominated the 7.3km uphill time trial with its 5.8% average gradient. Then she displayed an absolute attacking masterclass on the way to Pereiro de Aguiar.
Van Vleuten went on the move with Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM Racing), Kata Blanka Vas (Team SD Worx) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo). She was to drop everyone with almost 50km to go, eventually winning the stage 2’48’’ ahead of Liane Lippert (Team DSM) and Niewiadoma, while Reusser lost 3’03’’.
“I just wanted to make it to the finish and I was also hoping my teammates would get in the breakaway,” explained Van Vleuten after she sealed the overall victory in Santiago de Compostela. “I love to race in Spain, it was a nice hilly course and it’s important for me and my team. We can be happy with how we’ve raced.”
In the last stage, Leah Thomas (Movistar Team Women) was the last survivor of a breakaway also featuring the UCI World Champion Anna van der Breggen (Team SD Worx), wearing the rainbow jersey for the last time of her career, ahead of the UCI Road World Championships to be held in Belgium later this month. Thomas was only caught inside the last kilometre, when the Belgian National Champion Lotte Kopecky (Liv Racing) powered to her seventh victory of the season.
👏 Gracias, @ChallengeVuelta | @lavuelta, por darle al ciclismo femenino los escenarios y cobertura que merecen y traernos a la Plaza del Obradoiro, junto a la Catedral de Santiago, para el podio de la #CERATIZITChallenge21.
— Movistar Team (@Movistar_Team) September 5, 2021
💙 ¡Días muy bonitos para este equipo! #RodamosJuntos pic.twitter.com/BfQaf5pglg
Roglič, Jakobsen, Cort Nielsen... the heroes of La Vuelta 21
Almost three weeks earlier, Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) had immediately asserted his dominance in La Vuelta, winning the opening time trial in front of the cathedral of Burgos. More than 3,400km (3,417km to be exact) later, he was once again on top of the standings, after winning the closing time trial in front of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
In between, the Slovenian star had won two more stages, on the wall of Valdepeñas de Jaen (stage 11) and at the iconic Lagos de Covadonga (stage 17), after what he described as his “greatest showing in La Vuelta”. And that means a lot, in a race where he’s claimed 36 leader’s jerseys (in 60 stages).
On the way to Los Lagos, Roglič followed a longr-ange attack by Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) with 60km to go. The Colombian climber was eventually dropped 7.5km before the summit, where the Slovenian took the red jersey from Odd Christian Eiking, leader of La Vuelta for a week after his Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux companion Rein Taaramäe held ‘La Roja’ for a couple of days in the first week. Kenny Elissonde (Trek-Segafredo) was the other rider to wear the red jersey, on day six.
La Vuelta Ciclista a España still had some fireworks in store, most notably on the Galician roads leading to Mos, on the eve of the final stage. The young Frenchman Clément Champoussin (AG2R-Citroën Team) took his maiden pro victory in style. And Bahrain Victorious turned the race upside down, to put Jack Haig on the third spot of the podium, behind Enric Mas (Movistar Team) and in place of Miguel Angel Lopez (Movistar Team), who abandoned the race two days after taking the win in Alto del Gamoniteiro.
Three weeks of exhilarating racing saw many other heroes rise to the fore. Jasper Philipsen made sure Alpecin-Fenix won the first sprint of the Spanish Grand Tour (stage 2), just like they had done in the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France with Tim Merlier. The Belgian sprinter also won stage 5 in Albacete.
Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck – Quick-Step) was even more successful with three stage wins (4, 8, 16) that meant he was awarded the green jersey a year after he almost lost his life in a terrible crash. Magnus Cort Nielsen (EF Education-Nippo) also won three stages (6, 12, 19), always in spectacular fashion. Michael Storer (Team DSM) took two victories (7, 10) in the mountains, along with the polka dot jersey. Rafal Majka (UAE Team Emirates), Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) and Romain Bardet (Team DSM) also won through long range attacks, and Florian Sénéchal edged the sprinters in Villanueva de la Serena (stage 13).