14 facts About the 77th Vuelta and other 2022 Grand Tours

The 2022 Vuelta a España ended on Sunday with the traditional processional into Madrid and sprint for the final stage honours. Juan Sebastian Molano upset the favourites by winning his first Grand Tour stage, and Remco Evenepoel was crowned the new Vuelta champion, his first Grand Tour title.

Let’s look back on the final three-week stage race of the season and the Grand Tours in general.

2022 Vuelta a España Final GC

1) Remco Evenepoel (Belgium/Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl) 80:26:59
2) Enric Mas (Spain/Movistar) +2:05
3) Juan Ayuso (Spain/UAE-Emirates) +4:57
4) Angel Lopez (Colombia/Astana) +5:56
5) João Almeida (Portugal/UAE-Emirates) +7:24
6) Thymen Arensman (The Netherlands/DSM) +7:45
7) Carlos Rodriguez (Spain/Ineos) +7:57
8) Ben O’Connor (Australia/AG2R-Citroën) +10:30
9) Rigoberto Uran (Colombia/EF Education-Easypost) +11:04
10) Jai Hindley (Australia/Bora-Hansgrohe) +12:01

1. Remco Evenepoel is the first Belgian to win the Vuelta since Freddy Maertens in 1977 and the youngest rider to win since 1961. He’s also the first Belgian to claim a Grand Tour title since Johan De Muynck took the 1978 Giro. His victory is the first Grand Tour GC win for the 20-year-old Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl squad.

2. Enric Mas has stood on three Grand Tour podiums in his career, all of them as the Vuelta’s runner-up.

3. Evenepoel, Mas and Ayuso make up the youngest Grand Tour podium since Gino Bartali won the Giro in 1937.

4. Two Spanish riders who made the top 7, podium man Juan Ayuso and Carlos Rodriquez, did so on their Grand Tour debuts.

5. Mads Pedersen is the first Dane to claim the Vuelta’s points classification.

6. Richard Carapaz is the first Ecuadorian to win the Vuelta mountains classification and sixth South American.

7. Five riders—Sean Bennett, Jay Vine, Carapaz, Evenepoel and Pedersen—won 12 of the 21 stages between them.

8. Alejandro Valverde was 13th in his 32nd and final Grand Tour 20 years after his first one. Vincenzo Nibali was 45th in his 27th and last Grand Tour, his second to worst ever Grand Tour result, although he was 4th in the Giro.

9. The 2022 Giro (Hindley), Tour (Vingegaard) and Vuelta (Evenepoel) were all won by riders earning their first Grand Tour crowns. Hindley was the only rider in the pro ranks to be in more than one 2022 Grand Tour top-10.

10. Ineos Grenadiers and Bora-Hansgrohe had the most riders in the three Grand Tour top-10s, both with four out of a possible 30. UAE Emirates, Astana and Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert all put three fellows into the 30. Four WorldTour squads—Israel-Premier Tech, Lotto-Soudal, Cofidis and BikeExchange-Jayco—had no riders in the 30. Ineos and UAE both boasted two riders on 2022 Grand Tour podiums. Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl, Jumbo-Visma, Movistar, Bora-Hansgrohe, Bahrain-Victorious all had one.

11. This year was the first time since 2014 that Ineos/Sky didn’t win a Grand Tour.

12. The 2022 Giro d’Italia had two Italians in the top-10, the Tour de France had three Frenchmen in the top-10 and the Vuelta a España had three Spaniards in the top-10.

13. There were six Canadian entrants in Grand Tours this year, with Michael Woods starting both the Tour and Vuelta. Of the six Canucks on WorldTour teams, only James Piccoli missed out on a Grand Tour. Hugo Houle was the best placed Canadian at 23rd in the Tour, but Alex Cataford and Antoine Duchesne finished the Giro and Tour respectively.

14. Following Nairo Quintana’s 6th place in the Tour scrubbed from the record due to his tramadol positive, Lorenzo Fortunato (Italy/EOLO-Kometa) was the best-placed wild card Grand Tour rider this season with 15th in the Giro.