the Volta Spa 2024 crowns a new king here in Spain's capital of Madrid Primos RIT the Slovenian has equaled the record of most wins in this Spanish grand tour with four but put an as next to that we'll Circle back to that later with the win he made a Slovenian Clean Sweep of grand Tours with Countryman T pachar winning the jir Italia and tur of France earlier this year it's only been done four four times in history after France and Spain and then the United Kingdom most recently in 2018 with Chris V garant Thomas and Simon Yates in the jro tour and welta some were worried that rage wouldn't be able to take the start line of stage 21 a time trial in Madrid or if he did start the 25 km time trial that he wouldn't be able to defend his first place overall against Ben o Conor in second place though he led by 2 minutes and Ill rocked the team forcing helpers Danny Martinez and Patrick gamper to abandon the race and Nico Den to miss the time cut in stage 20 RIT thankfully was not hit with the same bug and secured his title by 2 minutes 36 seconds over Ben o Conor Spaniard Enrique Moss finished third overall OK Conor led the race for 13 days after a stage six win and held on to Second Place overall his highest ever Grand Tour placing it Bots well for his trans transer to home team jako in 2025 if we're looking down the top 10 in the overall classification well behind MOS car pass fourth Matias skilos in fifth he was the only mover in this final TT overcoming Frenchman David gadu to take fifth place overall gadu slipping down to sixth leitz there in seventh at Landa in eighth Pavo COV ninth and caros Rodriguez in 10th place of course we must mention the time trial here in Madrid 24.6 km and Primos rogich in his five grand tour victories has never taken a grand tour Victory without winning a time trial along the way his last being the J to Talia last year with that stage 20 time trial Victory well we'll have to do without in this welas B although picking up three stage wins along the way before we got here to Madrid hats off to swissman King K Stephen K from groupama fdj picking up his first Grand Tour Victory he stormed the course with an average of 55 km an hour with this time of 26 minutes and 28 seconds he finished 30 seconds ahead of Primos rogich who was the last Rider to start the stage remember I said to put an aster next to Primos rit's overall wins well there's another Rider Roberto haras who won for walas B 2000 through 2005 2005 was his last one riding for team Li saguro however during that VA he was found to be using blood booster EPO and lost the victory through a court battle here in Spain he later got the victory back although many noted that still didn't take the away the fact that he was using EPO during that race the Volta Spa marked the end of a long Camino for a few Riders retirees who marked the end of their career here at this race Belgian Thomas deant who's written 501 Grand Tour stages over 25 grand Tours and in that time he's picked up stage victories in all three grand Tours or one of our interview favorites LS Angel mate the Spaniard who he called The Links of Mara 17 years as a professional and oh what a Camino you and I have had over the three weeks covering all three grand Tours this year here at the walta SP right over my shoulder Primos RIT getting called up on the podium here in this W espa well we covered three 3,300 km of racing 61,000 M of climbing over 21 stages and a lot of transfer miles in the car driving to and from the stage and on rest days we started in the capital of Portugal in Lisbon we had three stages in that country before going to the south of Spain up to the north of Spain nine Summit finishes along the way before we finished here in Spain's capital of Madrid team UAE won the jro and tour with t pachar they didn't end up contending for the GC here but came away with three-stage wins Us Rider Brandon MCN Adam Yates winning to Stage Spaniard Mark Solair as well wal fan art the Belgian of VMA Lisa bike three stage wins and appeared unbeatable but crashed and had to abandon as the leader of the points competition and the mountains classification also Kaden Groves three Sprint stage victories and he would eventually take home the green jersey classification of points jayvine the Australian the mountains classification and we should note three stage wins by second division team Kar farma a huge success for that team that underlined the poor performances by bigger teams with bigger budgets like team inos EF education and team byrain Victorious but for me and probably for you one of the most exciting rides of this of walta spana had been Ben o Conor no one really expected the Australian to come in here and contend for the overall Victory and hold on to Second Place overall it was down to that aggression attacking style and Stage six that earned him a stage Victory to add to his stage victories in the J italan T to France where he's finished fourth overall in those races as well in the past he would then hold on to the leader red jersey for 13 days but even when he couldn't hold on any longer he put up a heck of a fight in stage 19 and then again in stage 20 with the team support defending his second place overall from enrik Moss but it was the Primos Reconquista regaining the Jersey the red jersey that he lost in stage six and his status as a grand tour star bouncing back from back injury after his crash and abandon in the tour to France he rebounded to win a grand tour again after the Jalia 2023 to mark his fifth Grand Tour Victory the Red Bull RIT charging into the arena The Matador no match for this Ro ification of the 2024 walas ba