{"id":193953,"date":"2023-09-18T15:50:14","date_gmt":"2023-09-18T15:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=193953"},"modified":"2023-09-18T15:50:57","modified_gmt":"2023-09-18T15:50:57","slug":"opinion-grand-vuelta-ends-with-jumbo-grand-slam-and-a-popular-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/09\/18\/opinion-grand-vuelta-ends-with-jumbo-grand-slam-and-a-popular-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Grand Vuelta Ends with Jumbo Grand Slam and a Popular Winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2023 Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a began in rain and darkness and finished in sunlight and with an unprecedented double Grand Slam. The Dutch team Jumbo-Visma not only became the first team to ever win all three Grand Tours in a single calendar year but also finished 1-2-3 in the final GC standings \u2013 which may be the first time that happened as well. Either one is a historical exploit that may never be equalled, but to achieve both in the same year is simply (and this time the word is apt) awesome. It is hard enough for a team to finish 1-2-3 in a mountain stage as Jumbo-Visma did on stage 17. The last time that was accomplished on a Grand Tour was in 1980 when Miko-Mercier achieved the feat in the Tour de France.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, in the final days of the race, a controversy \u2013 which was also unprecedented \u2013 took some of the shine off this astonishing accomplishment. Jumbo-Visma\u2019s super-domestique Sepp Kuss won the Vuelta red jersey, to the delight of the commentators who covered the race. Unfortunately, he did not win it on the road; he won it in the TV studio and on social media. Because, though he is a marvellous rider and rode a wonderful Vuelta \u2013 including an excellent 13th place in the ITT, never his strong suit \u2013 he was not the best rider in the race. If the race had been run without the moral crusade, the winner would have been one of Kuss\u2019s teammates, either double Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard or the three-time Vuelta victor, Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d.<\/p>\n

The polemic began with 2 km to go in stage 17, on the mighty Angliru,<\/a> when Vingegaard and Rogli\u010d rode away from their GC rivals, including Kuss, in what looked like an attempt and take the red jersey from their teammate. The storm that followed bordered on the hysterical. It began during the running of the race, and it continued on the post-race commentary, with one pundit after the other saying that Vingegaard and Rogli\u010d were unfair and that Kuss deserved the red jersey because he had helped them win Grand Tours in past years and because he is such a nice guy.<\/p>\n

Former Tour winner Geraint Thomas didn\u2019t agree. \u201cThere shouldn\u2019t be any gifts in a Grand Tour,\u201d he told Eurosport. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to gift a stage but I don\u2019t think because someone has worked for you for years that you should let them win.\u201d In fact. Thomas had predicted that Vingegaard and Rogli\u010d would attack their teammate. How could he have known that? Because he\u2019s a Grand Tour winner and would surely have done the same.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\ud83d\udcf8 FOTO DEL D\u00cdA | PIC OF THE DAY \ud83d\ude0d <\/p>\n

Powered by Plenitude#LaVuelta23<\/a>\u00a0 – \ud83d\udcf8 @cxcling<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/vcdIS7SF3M<\/a><\/p>\n

— La Vuelta (@lavuelta) September 17, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n