MADRID: Primož Roglič won a record-equalling fourth Spanish Vuelta title after successfully protecting his lead in the final individual time trial on Sunday.

Roglič finished the 24.6-km time trial without any scares, and his overall lead of more than two minutes was never in jeopardy.

He ended cycling’s final Grand Tour of the year 2 minutes, 36 seconds ahead of Australia’s Ben O’Connor, who led for nearly two weeks. Enric Mas finished third overall, more than three minutes off the lead.

“I wanted to finish it off. It was tough but everything went fine and I’m happy,” Roglic said. “It’s a lot of sacrifice. It’s not only me. My family, everyone around, we all sacrifice dearly for this. I just feel happy that I can do it. I really appreciate the support that I get.”

Roglič was second in the final time trial on Sunday, ending 31 seconds behind stage winner Stefan Küng of Switzerland.

Roglič matched the record of four titles won by Spanish rider Roberto Heras in 2000 and 2003-05. The Slovenian rider’s other victories came from 2019-21.

Another Slovenian, Tadej Pogacar, had won the other Grand Tour races this year — the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia.

It was Roglič’s first Vuelta triumph since switching from team Jumbo Visma to Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe.

Roglic, a Tokyo Olympic gold medallist in the individual time trial, got off to a slow start this year but gradually cut into the lead of O’Connor. Roglic finally took the leader’s red jersey on Friday after a couple of strong runs on difficult climbing stages.

The Vuelta this year finished with a time trial instead of the usual low-key arrival in Madrid when cycling custom requires overall challengers to respect the race leader’s advantage.

Roglič said winning a fifth Vuelta next year “would be nice, it’s never enough, but four is already crazy.” (AP)