“I didn’t expect to have this level so quickly,” says Primoz Roglic (33). And whoever listens to him nods.
He had finished very battered in September, after his second accident in a big one, then in the Vuelta (a couple of months before he had crashed in the Tour).
The first accident had crushed his clavicle and the second, in the Vuelta, in a strange sprint in Tomares, had crushed everything. Those images are overwhelming. Roglic crashes at 60 km/h, destroying half his body: his face, his clavicle itself, his knees, his wrists, his hands…
He had had to go through the operating room and from there, to fallow.
It took six months to reappear on the scene.
When he has done it, this week in the Tirreno-Adriatico, he has been a colossus.
The week, spring in winter, has been wonderful for Slovenian cycling, the novelty of these times due to its rarity. In another time, there was no news from the Balkans. In the same decade, two unique talents have come together: Roglic’s success on Italian roads is joined by the success of Tadej Pogacar in Paris-Nice, also champion.
Roglic, a cyclist with greats on his resume (three Vueltas, a second place in the Tour, a third in the Giro…), has grown larger with the passing of days. On Thursday, at the top of Tortoreto, he had thrown himself on top of Lennard Kamna, still the virtual leader; on Friday, in the fifth, he repeated partial victory and definitively knocked down the German. On Saturday, in the sixth, he signed the hat trick and the rivals bowed their heads.
How to counter that?
With the general determined, the last stage has gone transition. In the sprint, Jasper Phillipsen has won it. Roglic, who started with an 18 second margin over Joao Pedro Almeida and 23 over Tao Geoghegan Hart, now only had to temporize.
Behind, resigned, the Spaniards have finished. Enric Mas was sixth overall and Mikel Landa, tenth.
Roglic’s next destinations remain to be seen. His team, the Jumbo-Visma, must decide what to do. Will he bet on Roglic for the Giro and Jonas Vingegaard for the Tour, or will he unite both for their own good to tickle the great Pogacar on the French roads?
