Chris Froome wins La Vuelta to clinch fifth Grand Tour title
Written by News on 11/09/2017
Chris Froome has won La Vuelta a Espana, becoming the first British cyclist in history to do so and near a status as an all-time great.
The four-time Tour de France champion comfortably finished Sunday’s final stage to Madrid in 11th place, to clinch victory in the three-week long race’s general classification.
Froome’s victory means he has become only the third man in history to complete the double of winning Le Tour and La Vuelta in the same season.
The Team Sky rider is also the first cyclist to do the Tour-Vuelta double since La Vuelta was moved after Le Tour in the cycling calendar.
The 32-year-old’s fifth Grand Tour victory puts him joint seventh on the all-time list of Grand Tour wins per rider.
Italy’s Matteo Trentin won Sunday’s stage, as Froome enjoyed a traditional parade into the Spanish capital clad in the race leader’s red jersey.
Froome’s high placing in the final stage was also enough to see him win the green points jersey, pipping Trentin.
Although he is some way from the record 11 Grand Tour wins of Belgian Eddy Merckx, Froome is closely approaching Spaniard Alberto Contador’s seven victories.
Contador himself, who will now retire, won the penultimate stage of La Vuelta on Saturday, the infamously steep and uneven climb up the challenging Angliru mountain road.
Froome may be prioritising a fifth Tour de France title in 2018, but having bagged a La Vuelta title on his sixth attempt, the cyclist’s sights could be set on the third of the Grand Tours: the Giro d’Italia in May.
His La Vuelta victory is the first time Team Sky have won a Grand Tour other than Le Tour de France.
(c) Sky News 2017: Chris Froome wins La Vuelta to clinch fifth Grand Tour title
