by Dillon Corkery, Team Picnic-PostNL
The final week of this year’s Vuelta a España delivered a dramatic finish to three weeks of brutal racing. The battle for the red jersey went right down to the final mountain stages between Enric Mas and Primož Roglič.
Mas Claims First Grand Tour Victory
For his first Grand Tour win, sealed in Granada, Mas showed throughout the three weeks, even while Tadej Pogačar was still in the race, that he was definitely a massive podium contender. He really deserved to win this race once Pogačar departed.
On the final mountain stage we saw Mikel Landa take a memorable solo victory on the Collado del Alguacil, while Mas very calmly defended his red jersey against Roglič and the other GC contenders. The final stage into Granada was largely ceremonial for the overall classification.
Of note in this year’s race was the performance of the young Matthew Brennan, Team Visma | Lease a Bike, who took 5 stage wins. An impressive tally by any standards, particularly seeing as it was his debut Grand Tour. 7 stage wins in total for his team was a ridiculous achievement!
Had the pleasure of racing against him last year and this year again. Yeah, he’s the real deal and still very young.
Mas became the first Spanish winner of the Vuelta since Alberto Contador in 2014.
Eddie Dunbar’s Brilliant Stage 19 Win
One of the absolute standout moments of the week for Irish fans came from our own Eddie Dunbar. He produced a brilliant win on Stage 19 at Peñas Blancas.
After a difficult season affected by injury, including being hit by a moped not that long ago and spending six weeks in a boot with zero training, Eddie showed incredible resilience.
He fought back to catch Santiago Buitrago, who in his own right is a super rider, inside the final kilometres before powering clear to an understandably emotional victory.
It was his third Vuelta a España stage win after his double in 2024. Some going!
Darren Rafferty’s Strong Support Role
Another super showing again from Darren Rafferty throughout the final stages. The young Irishman repeatedly showed his strength in the mountains while riding in support of Richie Carapaz, who also had a solid GC result by the end of this year’s Vuelta.
Earlier in the race, Darren spent around 118 kilometres up the road before continuing to fight for Carapaz deep into the final week.
He proved himself more than capable of mixing it in the toughest mountain stages. As a young rider, he’s well capable of featuring deep into these Grand Tour finales.
Definitely one for me to watch for future Grand Tour ambitions because he’s still so young.
Overall Thoughts on a Memorable Vuelta
Overall I think it was a really good Vuelta for Ireland and a really good Vuelta for the general public who watched the race. It made for super exciting racing, even with the departure of Pogačar.
I feel that with the type of stages that were there, it would have been largely dominated by him and his UAE team, so his exit opened up a lot of opportunities.
That’s a wrap on three weeks of super racing around Spain. I hope sometime I’ll be there myself.
But for now the focus for me is on the next few races in Belgium Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen (18th September) followed by Gooikse Pijl (20th September), and maybe getting a Grand Tour start in the legs next year.
