Roglič and teammates celebrate historic feat in Madrid
Primož Roglič took third place overall in the Vuelta a Espana, joining his teammates on the podium in Madrid on 17 September for a historic hat trick of Grand Tour victories for Jumbo Visma this year.
American Sepp Kuss won the general classification for his debut Grand Tour victory, ahead of Dane Jonas Vinegegaard and the Slovenian cycling ace.
The Dutch team thus completed an unprecedented achievement of winning all three of Europe's Grand Tours of Italy, France and Spain in the same season.
Roglič took the the Giro's pink jersey to Rome in May, Vingegaard took the yellow jersey to Paris in July and now Kuss, who loyally helped them both to their victories, wore red in Madrid.
Kuss put on the leader's jersey in stage 8 to turn from a helper into a third leader of the black and yellow team. Even if they sometimes appeared to differ, both Roglič and Vinegegaard helped the American to keep the red jersey.
Kuss finished the race with a 17 second gap on Vingegaard and 1:08 minutes clear of Roglič. The trio crossed the finish line together, like they did in the penultimate stage, offering photographers plenty of photo opportunities.
Roglič, 33, celebrated his seventh Grand Tour podium. Apart from winning the Giro once and the Vuelta three times ( 2019, 2020 and 2021), he also finished the Tour second in 2020 when his compatriot Tadej Pogačar won the race for the first time, and placed third in the 2019 Giro.
He took two stage victories at this year's Vuelta to chalk up 79 career victories, of which 14 this year. Except for the Vuelta, he has won all the races he appeared in this season. On top of the Giro, he also reigned victorious at the Tirreno - Adriatico, the Volta a Catalunya and the Vuelta a Burgos.