Vuelta 2019: Three Ages of Man

by EDWARD PICKERING - EDITOR

Procycling UK, November 2019

There was something for everyone at the Vuelta a España this year, especially with the final podium. On the top step: Primož Roglič, a rider who has confirmed the huge promise he has shown in the last few seasons by winning a grand tour. Alejandro Valverde, the runner-up, stood on one side. The world champion just seems to keep on going forever. On the other side stood Tadej Pogacar, a first year pro who had stunned the cycling world with three stages and third overall.

The podium pictures were a cycling version of Titian’s Three Ages of Man. Here stood the 2019 winner with the 2009 winner. And since Pogačar will only be 30 years old then, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he were to be the 2029 winner. The young UAE rider was one year out from another nice bit of numerical coincidence: Valverde's 39, Roglič is 29, and Pogačar is... 20. Damn.

There was some more novelty. Roglič and Pogacar are both from Slovenia, and after Colombia’s first Tour title this summer with Egan Bernal, and Ecuador’s triumph at the Giro through Richard Carapaz, it all feels like our world is expanding. On the other hand, the teams of the winner and runner-up, Jumbo-Visma and Movistar, are two of the most venerable WorldTour outfits, both tracing their beginnings back to the 1980s. The talk may be of new beginnings with a relative novice having won the race and a 20-year old having come third, but cycling always has one foot in the future and one in the past.

The Vuelta was a good one. Yes, Roglič's victory was perhaps predictable, but the important thing is that with three or four days to go, I still wasn’t sure if he would win. The Guadalajara stage, in which crosswinds broke everything up, set the race alight again, just as Roglič and his team had tamped down the fires in the previous mountain stages. It was a truly great stage, and it set up the finale perfectly.