Saturday 10th September 2022
Stage 20: Moralzarzal - Puerto de Navacerrada (181km)
Today’s penultimate stage is the decider, and could be three races in one, a breakaway race for a stage win, Remco will need to hang on in there to win the tour, and the race to see who also steps up on the podium (apart from Remco and Enric.)
This is assuming the Classification leaders are settled, however this stage is long and challenging so there could be upsets along the way…
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 20
POINTS CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 20
MOUNTAINS CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 20
YOUTH CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 20
TEAMS CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 20
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134 on the start line and 134 finished 
My initial reaction was one of sorrow to lose such a big name from the Vuelta.
My opinion has become a little less charitable having read the outrageous comments made by Roglic and his team, pinning the blame for his accident on Fred Wright.
Roglic has just not been able to find his form this season but that is no excuse for chucking his toys out of the pram when he clearly made a mistake on the final sprint for the finish line.
Peter
…in the USA they only carried the last two climbs through the presentations. I loved the effort by Carapaz to go get the KOM points and then to press on for his third stage victory! It will be interesting to see Carapaz in the pink EF colors next year…
A fine race and finish… Remoc answered everything that was thrown at him and did a great job and happy to see that he resonded to everyone who challenged him.
Thanks @Debs for all your efforts with maintaining the bicycle racing threads!
Looking forward to run around Madrid tomorrow…
Carapaz showed himself in fantastic form today, very impressive win!
EF have done well to sign him up for next year.
29 year old Carapaz has rode ten Grand Tours so far, to include 6 stage wins and four GC podiums finishes:
Giro: 2018 = 4th / 2019 = 1st / 2022 = 2nd
TdF: 2021 = 3rd / 2020 = 13th
Vuelta: 2017 = 36th / 2018 = 18th / 2021 = DNF / 2020 = 2nd / 2022 = 14th?
At least Ineos have something to show for this tour, their GC hope Carlos Rodríguez lost more time today, falling two positions down to 7th place, although he maybe impaired by the crash he was involved in which took out Jay Vine and Quentin Packer.
Sunday 11th September 2022
Stage 21: (Final Stage) Las Rozas - Madrid (96.7km)
Will Mads Pedersen bag his 4th stage win?
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134 riders on the final stage start line.
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Start due at 16:10hr (UK time)
Expected finish in Madrid approx’ 19:00hr (UK time)
Highlights and presentations on Quest at the later time of 23:00hr to Midnight (UK)
STAGE 21 RESULTS
Final Results
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
POINTS CLASSIFICATION
MOUNTAINS CLASSIFICATION
YOUTH CLASSIFICATION
TEAMS CLASSIFICATION
Thanks to @Debs for yet another superb thread……and I’m not even a cyclist!
But I do have cats…… 
Great tour, and very well reported as usual by @Debs, to accurately include this level of information detail on a daily basis must be quite time consuming. 
Lot’s to pick out this tour, the disappointing high number of competitors forced out after testing + with covid. Not sure how many off-hand but over 2 dozen ~
The eldest competitor, Alejandro Valverde completed this tour with a 13th GC result. He is expected to retire from profession racing this year, this his final Grand Tour event which totals 32 spanning 21 years to include TdF x 14 / Giro x 2 / Vuelta x 16
19 year old Juan Ayuso, on his very first Grand Tour, was lucky to be allowed dispensation after a +Covid test (they reasoned that his covid condition was non-infectious). This was a close shave for the teenager and youngest competitor in this tour who achieved a podium position in 3rd place.
Enric Mas finished 2nd on the podium, and incredibly this is the third time he has achieved this result in la Vuelta; 2nd in 2018 and last year too.
He was also 5th in 2020 and 71st in his debut 2017 Grand Tour
Mas has also rode the TdF four times finishing;
22nd in 2019, 5th in 2020, 6th in 2021, 2022 DNF
22 year old Remco Evenepoel, at his first Vuelta is the winner.
His only previous Grand Tour experience is the Giro last year, a crash forced him to abandon after Stage 17 while in 7th GC position.
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GENERAL INDIVIDUAL CLASSIFICATION Prize Money!
1st 150,000€
2nd 57,985€
3rd 30,000€
4th 15,000€
5th 12,500€
6th 9,000€
7th 9,000€
8th 6,000€
9th 6,000€
10th al 20th (3,800€ x 11) 41,800€
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As always, many thanks Debs for keeping us up to date and for your thoughtful commentary.
Clive
Thanks Debs for taking the time and putting the effort in to keep us all informed.
Not sure why but I suffered from cycling watching fatigue mid way through the second week and my interest waned. I got the impression that much of the peleton were in a similar disposition with much of their energy already spent on earlier competitions. The young lad with the Zwift background smashing out two stage victories was incredible, as was, for different reasons, Rog’s slight fall from grace.
Peter
IMO - it was a risky take on Roglič’s part to compete in the sprint finish that he crashed in, although he’s an excellent all rounder with a fast sprint wining potential, he’s was a very serious GC contender (and the defending champ). He should have kept himself in a safe position, especially with his accident prone history. A mass sprint finish always has it’s hazards.
I found the visual footage given to be unclear if there was any fault to blame, and there are wall to wall observers and experts on hand so any foul riding would have been jumped on had there been a case to answer.
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Meanwhile: 22 year old Remco Evenepoel has become a very worthy Grand Tour winner. It will be good to see him compete in next year’s TdF up against the like of other young bloods, Vingegaard and Pogačar.
Yes listening the David Millar talk about it he reckoned it was an accident caused by Roglic relaxing (a bit) and so being easier to be knocked off and Wright still competing for the win.
It looks to me like Primož went to get onto van Poppel’s wheel without realised Fred was already on it and coming though, Primož veered in towards Fred who looks threatened with the close proximity plus the barrier to his right and momentarily balanced himself with a left knee outwards - Primož handlebars caught Fred’s knee which sent his bike abruptly out of control. An unfortunate racing incident.
It was not Fred’s fault, he had every right to be where he was.
Absolutely. GC riders shouldn’t be in bunch sprints and shouldn’t complain if they do.
Yes, Roglic’s behaviour was very strange. It was as if he first of all pulled aside to let the other riders sprint for the stage, having gained some time in the overall standings, but then changed his mind and rejoined the bunch without paying proper attention. His decision to blame Fred Wright several days after the incident showed similar poor judgement.
Like Peter above, I found my interest waning as the tour progressed. I think it was at least in part a consequence of the high number of withdrawals from Covid as Debs has recorded. It definitely affected the racing and the overall standings from day to day.
Given Evanepoel was looking hard to unseat for GC, Roglic’s best option was trying for stage wins. It was a racing incident - they happen. The only thing wrong was his chelping afterwards 
Yes. Blaming someone is the heat of the moment would be understandable. Sleeping on it twice and then deciding it was all Fred’s fault is very odd.
Rather than start a thread this last in the season thought I’d drop a note here, have we watched the worlds yet?
