Primoz Roglic wins La Vuelta 2021’s individual time trial

Fresh from his individual time trial gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Primoz Roglic won Stage 1 of La Vuelta taking another individual time trial win.

Right after his individual time trial win at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Slovenian rider Primoz Roglic took another individual time trial win in the first stage of 2021 La Vuelta in Burgos, Spain on Aug. 14.

Riding for Team Jumbo-Visma as defending champion from the 2020 La Vuelta, Roglic was the last to race and was a full six seconds ahead of Alex Aranburu from Team Astana-Premier-Tech.

Bahrain-Victorious’ Jan Tratnik placed third at eight seconds slower than Roglic and many of the other general classification contenders for other teams were not far behind.

Primoz Roglic’s year so far in cycling

Many of those racing have made choices about entering either the 2021 Tokyo Olympics or the Tour de France.

Some such as Thomas Pidcock are riding in La Vuelta after competing in Tokyo while others such Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar opted to ride in only the Tour de France and the Olympics and not all three events.

Roglic chose to ride in all three events this year, despite the short timeframe for recovery and preparation in between the events. He crashed during the early stages of the 2021 Tour de France and pulled out to recover and train for the Tokyo Olympics before winning gold in the men’s individual time trial.

He is now a favorite to win La Vuelta a Espana again.

The last grand tour this year is the 2021 La Vuelta a Espana

La Vuelta a Espana is the last of the three Grand Tours in cycling for 2021. Like the Tour de France, in La Vuelta a Espana, the shortest overall cumulative time after 21 stages determines the overall race winner but winning each stage is also lauded.

Riders can also compete to win points for sprinting and for mountain climbs and the most combative or best young rider classifications as well as the best team. La Vuelta a Espana is running from Aug, 14 this year, shifted slightly to account for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.