Team Sky brought their Vuelta a Espana campaign to a close in Madrid as Edvald Boasson Hagen and Rigoberto Urán contested the bunch sprint.

The pair slipped back heading into the crucial last corner and collected 13th and 14th positions respectively after the team had hit the front with numbers heading onto the bell lap. Starting the race with the hope of placing well on the general classification, the tour proved to be a valuable learning process for Colombian team leader Sergio Henao.

The 25-year-old ended the three-week event in 28th place, one spot behind Urán, who spent much of the early race inside the top 10. A number of near-misses throughout the three weeks from the likes of Boasson Hagen and Urán were finally made up for on stage 18 by a stirring solo victory on Peña Cabarga by Vasil Kiryienka. The Belarusian took his first victory for the team in fine style, mirroring the success of Chris Froome on the climb two years earlier and ensuring Team Sky captured a stage win in all three Grand Tours for the first time in a season.

Chris Horner stayed safe on the final stage and completed a famous victory at the Vuelta as the oldest rider to win the Spanish Grand Tour. The 41-year-old (RadioShack-Leopard) also became the first American to win the race, maintaining a 37-second advantage over chief rival Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) across the line in Madrid. That lead margin had been driven home on the brutal slopes of the Alto de l’Angliru on Saturday, with Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) ensuring a Spaniard sat on the final podium in third, 1min 36secs back on Horner, claiming the points jersey in the process.

The final bunch sprint in Madrid was claimed by Michael Matthews, the Australian (Orica-GreenEDGE) out-kicking rivals Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) and Nikias Arndt (Argos-Shimano) to take his second stage of the event.  After the stage Sports Director Nicolas Portal talked through the plan on the final day and the challenges of the Madrid finishing circuit.

“The plan was to try our lead-out for Eddy and to put the whole team in there with Rigo and Sergio helping out,” he confirmed. “The circuit here is very wide and fast and it is hard to have one team commit and stay up there for the final kilometres. “We gave it a try and then heading into the last corner there were a number of teams who all moved in and got to the front. Rigo and Eddy were a bit boxed coming out of there and onto the final straight. So that was a shame but we had to give it a try.”

Portal also reflected on a number of near-misses in the race and talked about how the three weeks will make Henao a stronger rider during his next leadership role.

“Sergio is disappointed on one side as he doesn’t have the results on paper at the end of the race. But he can certainly learn from this experience and leading the team at a Grand Tour. He will know how to manage these different pressures better next time around and learn from his mistakes. As a team we had a lot of second and third places. If the luck had gone our way and we’d taken a few of those stages it could have proved to be a successful race. Sometimes you just miss out by a tyre-width, but the really positive thing for me is that during the last three weeks the ambience in the team has been really good.”

The third and final Grand Tour of the season saw the closest fight for victory in 2013, with Horner and Nibali enjoying three separate stints in the red jersey amid a ding-dong battle. Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Nicolas Roche (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) both claimed stage wins along the way and cemented fourth and fifth overall.