Lisa Brennauer (Ceratizit-WNT) won the Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta and Primož Roglič (Jumbo Visma) the Vuelta a España, both retaining their titles. The German survived a challenging last stage in Madrid from the Italian Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek Segafredo). The Slovenian triumphed after an exciting duel with Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) from the first day to the last of a shortened (18 instead of 21 stages) route, packed with climbs.
Brennauer emulated the only other rider to have won twice, Belgium's Jolien d’Hoore in 2016 and 2017, thanks to a third place in the uphill sprint in the first stage, a powerful performance in the second day’s ITT and engaging in a great battle with the intermediate sprints in Madrid.
“This was a super hard stage, I’m really proud of my team, how they control the race, they did an awesome job always trying to bring me in the best position and I couldn’t have done any of that without them. It was a tough fight today, but I found that the harder the race became, the best was for me, I tried all the sprints to gain more seconds”, said Brennauer.
Like in 2019 when he finished third in Giro d’Italia, Roglič became the only rider to claim two Grand Tour podiums this year with second place in the Tour de France and, thanks to his Liège-Bastogne-Liège victory, he followed Frenchman Laurent Jalabert, the last rider to win La Vuelta plus a Monument (Milan-Sanremo), 25 years ago.
“I never doubted that I would win the Vuelta, even if it’s never finished until you cross the finish line,” said the former ski jumper. “A big thanks to the organisation and everybody involved who made this possible. We can see in the world it’s a really bad situation but we still could do some racing and maybe produce some positive news at the end of the day. I started every day as if this was a Classic, each stage by itself. I’m super-proud of this season”
The 2020 edition was the first with three consecutive stages after the one-day race through Madrid's city centre from 2015 to 2017 and the two-day events with the addition of TTT and ITT in Boadilla del Monte in the last two years. The diversified menu offered a first hilly 82.8km road stage from Toledo to Escalona, a 9.3km ITT at Boadilla del Monte and a final 17-lap circuit for a total of 98.6km in Madrid.