Chris Froome has become just the third man to win the Tour de France and La Vuelta in the same year, and the first since the Vuelta moved from the early part of the season to the latter in 1995.
In almost a carbon copy of his fourth Tour de France win earlier this year, Froome built an early lead in Spain and Team Sky were able to fend off the attacks of his rivals to see it home, with Froome able to extend his advantage on the penultimate stage.
Despite only a 27-day gap between the end of the Tour and start of the Vuelta, Froome proved too strong for his rivals and joined the company of Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault as Vuelta-Tour winners in the same year.
Froome was able to sip a celebratory bottle of beer and glass of Cava on his way to the Spanish capital, knowing he had only to cross the finish line to win because tradition dictates the race leader is not challenged on the final stage.
"I've been fighting for this victory for six years. It's amazing to stand on the top step this time," he said, referring to his three second-place finishes in the race.
Holland's Lars Boom, meanwhile, secured his second Tour of Britain title as Edvald Boasson Hagen won the race's final stage in Cardiff.
The Team Lotto NL-Jumbo rider finished in the peloton to ensure victory by eight seconds from Norway's Boasson Hagen, who had moved ahead of Switzerland's Stefan Kung, two further seconds behind.
Boasson Hagen, of Team Dimension Data, finished the 180-kilometre eighth stage from Worcester in four hours and 19 minutes after breaking away in the final three kilometres.
The highest-placed Briton was Team Sky's Geraint Thomas, who came seventh, while his team-mate Mark Cavendish abandoned on the final day of his first race since his withdrawal from the Tour de France, which owed to a crash.
Belgian Victor Campenaerts of Team Lotto NL-Jumbo and Poland's Michail Kwiatkowksi, also of Team Sky, completed the top five of the general classification.
"It feels good to finally get this victory. We had a plan from the beginning of the day for me to try to attack with two or three kilometers to go," Boasson Hagen said.
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