"Winning the Tour is a great thing": Roglic

You can now look at the next Tour de France. The Slovenian Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) was proclaimed champion of the 74th edition of the Tour of Spain after the 21st and final stage, played between Fuenlabrada and Madrid, which won the Dutch sprint Fabio Jakobsen (Deceunink-Quick Step).

Roglic, one of the main favorites to win the Spanish round, has fulfilled expectations to achieve his first big lap at 29, the first also for a cyclist in his country.

"Having won this race is a great feeling," Roglic said after picking up his trophy on the podium located in the Plaza de Cibeles.

"I haven't had much time to think about all that, but we have certainly filmed to get into the story," Roglic said.

The Slovenian was accompanied on the podium by Spanish veteran Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), winner of the Vuelta in 2009, and by his young compatriot Tadej Pogacar (UAE), who snatched third place from Colombian Nairo Quintana on Saturday in the penultimate stage .

"We have lost the podium, it is true that it is nothing pleasant and less the last day, but we have given everything we could," said Quintana, winner of the Tour in 2016, yesterday's departure.

"We will keep trying," resigned the Colombian cyclist, who leaves Movistar to run next season at Arkea Samsic.

His still companion Alejandro Valverde was, however, happier: “The truth is that I am very happy, it is a real past, after 16 years (of his first podium), it is many years, I am still at the highest level and this Second time overall, so happy. ”

Faced with the disappointment of Quintana, the revelation Pogacar, a 20-year-old boy, who climbed the podium after winning three stages in the Spanish round, stands.

Roglic had put on the leader's red jersey in the time trial of the 10th stage and has not taken it off again until he reached the streets of Madrid this Sunday, testing a great mental strength to overcome all difficulties, including several falls.

The Slovenian, a good rodent and tenacious climber, hit his rivals in the individual time trial and then controlled his rivals in the following stages, well wrapped by his team.

The victory in the Tour culminates the progression of this former ski jumper converted to a cyclist, who in 2018 had been fourth in the Tour de France, but which in 2019 took another step up to the third drawer of the podium in the Giro behind Richard Carapaz and Vincenzo Niballi.