Stage 21

The road

At the start

Madrid, and a 22-year-old champion

Remco Evenepoel will be crowned in front of the Madrid town hall this evening, 2:05 clear of Enric Mas, at 22 years old — the first Belgian to win a Grand Tour since Johan De Muynck in 1978. Mads Pedersen has green and Richard Carapaz the mountains. Ninety-seven flat kilometres to ride, four passes through the centre of the city, and Alejandro Valverde's last day of a twenty-one-year career.

How it was won

1. 147 km to go

   Valverde's last lap

   The wolfpack have already ridden side by side for the photographs and the champagne — Evenepoel notably declining his. Then Alejandro Valverde rides solo off the front into the Madrid circuit, soaking up the adulation at the end of a twenty-one-year career.

2. 210 km to go

   Twenty-five seconds of hope

   Two riders build a small lead on a circuit full of hairpins and technical turns and hold it deep into the final lap. Earlier, Ineos tried to lead Carlos Rodríguez out at the intermediate for the second he needed on Arensman — and he could not take it.

3. 3At the line

   Molano wins, Evenepoel is crowned

   The break is swallowed with 800 metres left. UAE have the best train, and Molano — nominally the lead-out — simply keeps going all the way across the line to beat Pedersen. Behind, at 22, Remco Evenepoel is champion of the Vuelta a España.

The result