CYCLING – Team Bahrain Victorious star Santiago Buitrago secured the King of the Mountains (KOM) title last night while teammate Pello Bilbao impressed with a top 10 finish in the 21st and final stage of the 81st La Vuelta a Espana in Spain.
Buitrago came away with the white-and-blue polkadot jersey after three weeks of intense road racing with 78 points in the KOM battle.
The Colombian finished 16 points ahead of runner-up Wout van Aert of Team Visma-Lease a Bike after holding on to the lead in the ranking since taking the top spot in stage nine.
Bilbao, meanwhile, went on the attack on the final climb of yesterday’s 112-kilometre leg to take sixth place.
The Spaniard was part of the leading group that also included Buitrago and they finished behind stage winner Tobias Halland Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility, who came home in two hours 54 minutes and eight seconds.
Five Bahrain Victorious riders completed yesterday’s distance close to one another, with Slovenians Roman Ermakov and Jakob Omrzel in 69th and 70th, respectively, Dutchman Mathijs Paasschens in 72nd, Spaniard Pau Miquel in 74th, and Hungarian Attila Valter in 76th.
Rounding out the kingdom’s squad was Matevz Govekar, also from Slovenia, in 133rd.
Omrzel completed the race as Bahrain Victorious’ top-ranked competitor in the general classification in seventh – 10 minutes and 38 seconds behind overall winner Enric Mas of Movistar Team.
Omrzel was also runner-up in the best young rider standings, beaten by just 1:10 by Oscar Onley of Netcompany Ineos.
Meanwhile, Bahrain Victorious finished third in the race’s teams’ ranking, won by Decathlon CMA CGM Team.
This year’s La Vuelta a Espana featured a total race distance of 3,209.6km.
It was the third and final grand tour of this international cycling season, following the Giro d’Italia in May and the Tour de France in July.