Favorites stage 21 Vuelta a España 2024 | Madrid fans should support one team in particular

There was no sprint finish in Madrid, but a 24.6-kilometer individual time trial for the powerhouses in the Spanish capital. Although Madrid is situated pretty high up - at least for a big city - the riders will be confronted with a relatively flat course.

In doing so, the riders will start individually at Distrito Teléfonica, whose portfolio includes Movistar. This is in honor of the company's centennial, which will motivate Enric Mas and Co.

From the start, the riders will be presented with some technical kilometers, but they will mostly race hard until the finish line. In the final kilometers, the riders will pass the famous Prado Museum to finish on the Gran Via finally.

Climbs
No.

Timetable
Start: 4:20 p.m.
Finish: 7:30 p.m.

Sunday afternoon and early evening will be fine in Madrid, where it will be about 27 degrees Celsius. The wind blows from the west, and precipitation is impossible.

Of course, with the time trial on day one, we already have a good benchmark for this chrono, but how will the riders perform after 21 days? That is the question. The two top favorites of the opening day are already not here, as both Joshua Tarling (INEOS Grenadiers) and Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) had to deal with crashes.

Will Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) finally succeed in taking that sought-after stage win in a major tour? The Swiss rider from France has been an attacker throughout the race and could get the ultimate reward in Madrid. He won't get it, as the numbers one and two from Oeiras are still there.

Those were Brandon McNulty (UAE-Team Emirates) and Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), but they may be a little behind. McNulty crashed severely, and it was his first major tour for Vacek. Other names who can still do it after three weeks of Vuelta are Edoardo Affini (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), guys of granite.

And what about the classification riders? Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), an ex-Olympic champion, can also win here. Furthermore, Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) usually finish well. At the same time, Enric Mas (Movistar) wants to show himself in front of his crowd.

Furthermore, we should not exclude types such as Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny), Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R), Jay Vine, Pavel Sivakov (UAE-Team Emirates), Kasper Asgreen and Mattia Cattaneo (Soudal Quick-Step) for a nice place of honor and who knows an outlier.  

Top favorites:Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) and Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe)
Outsiders: Edoardo Affini (Visma | Lease a Bike), Brandon McNulty (UAE-Team Emirates), Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) and Nelson Oliveira (Movistar)
Long shots: Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny), Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R), Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Mattia Cattaneo (Soudal Quick-Step), Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Jay Vine (UAE-Team Emirates) and Enric Mas (Movistar)