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Remco Evenepoel (3rd from left) poses with his team before the start of the 21st stage
Photo:
Javier Lizon/EPO
Remco Evenepoel won the 77th Vuelta a España.
After the 21st stage over 96.7 kilometers from Las Rozas to Madrid, the victory of the Belgian professional cyclist was official, on the last section of the Tour of Spain there is traditionally no more attacking.
Evenepoel beat Enric Mas from Spain with a lead of 2:02 minutes.
His 19-year-old compatriot Juan Ayuso finished third, 4:57 minutes behind.
Evenepoel is the first Belgian in 44 years to win one of the three grand tours.
The victory of the day after 96.7 kilometers in the sprint was won by the Colombian Juan Sebastián Molano ahead of the former Danish world champion Mads Pedersen.
Pascal Ackermann, for whom the day's winner Molano was actually supposed to start the sprint, finished third in the day's classification.
Belgium has been waiting for success for 44 years
Evenepoel had already secured the overall victory on Saturday on the 20th stage over 175.5 kilometers from Moralzarzal to Puerto de Navacerrada.
The 22-year-old finished sixth, the day's win went to Richard Carapaz.
"It's incredible.
I don't know what's going through my body and my head right now," Evenepoel said after the 20th stage.
Evenepoel is the first Belgian in 44 years to win one of the three grand tours (Tour de France, Vuelta, Giro d'Italia) (read more here).
Evenepoel finished first in two daily stages of the Tour of Spain.
Defending champion Primož Roglič, who recently secured overall victory three times in a row, had to retire on Wednesday due to injury.
In the sprint final on Tuesday, he fell with serious consequences. Before that, he had done well in the race as second-placed overall.
The Dane Mads Pedersen, who had taken the lead in this classification after the seventh stage, won the points classification.
Carapaz from Colombia won the mountain classification.
In addition to his overall victory, Evenepoel was also recognized as the best young driver.
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