The last time they crossed paths on the road, before breaking bones on the descent from Olaeta, Primoz Roglic was the leader of the Itzulia from the first day, from a time trial in Irún, just 10 kilometers, in which he had surpassed Remco Evenepoel in 11s. Two months later, rehabilitation and altitude camps for both, and with the shadow of the Tour overwhelming them, the Belgian cyclist with the gigantic visor – the Specialized helmet-balaclava was already banned – turned the tables, returning the Slovenian to second per kilometer. , and a little more, surpassing him by 39s in the 34.4 hard and hot kilometers (49 per hour on average) of the Loire Valley in the Dauphiné.
As Jacques Anquetil, the only master of the specialty, said it had to be done, Evenepoel, new yellow jersey of the event, started sprinting, accelerated halfway, fluid, powerful, super collected on the bicycle, all one, new bike, skinsuit again, and finished it all. The two best Spaniards, Juan Ayuso and Carlos Rodríguez, the national hopes of a flowery Tour, tried to apply the same teaching, and both succumbed. They kept the pulse with the Belgian world champion in the first 10 kilometers, the least important ones (17s gave way to Ayuso, 27s to the Andalusian), but in the remaining 24 they couldn’t keep up. Ayuso, leader of the UAE in the Dauphiné and designated lieutenant of Tadej Pogacar in the Tour, finally gave up 1m 27s, and Rodríguez, leader of Ineos, 1m 41s, both within the range of 3s per kilometer.
Roglic started slower, worse than the Spaniards, but recovered in the last kilometers. “I always try to start at the top but I never succeed,” ironically said the Slovenian, who will return to the Tour as the sole leader of the Bora the year after winning the Giro with the Jumbo and finishing third in the Vuelta with his teammates Sepp Kuss and Jonas Vingegaard. “So I’m always better in the end. We are starting to perform well. This was the first real time trial for me. Let’s say that the Basque was a little more than a prologue or a race.”
In the Tour, 60 kilometers against the clock await them divided into two stages (25 plus 35), and even more mountains, their favorite territory, than those that await them in the Dauphiné the terrifying weekend, three high finishes in the Alps Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The mountains are his joy and Evenepoel’s nightmare, whose positivism almost makes him a victim of the so-called toxic optimism, so harmful. “I am very proud and happy and also the team around me, my family, the staff members, can be really proud of all their work, of all the support they have given me,” said the Belgian in which his people to that, with its debut in the big boucle, end the drought in his country, one of the founding pillars of cycling, in the Tour. Since Lucien van Impe, winner in 1976, no Belgian has arrived in yellow in Paris. “It has been quite a long road (since April 4, crash in Itzulia), three weeks almost without a bike, then only four weeks of training and then being at this level is a good sign for the Tour and also in my preparation, but there is still a long way to go.”
“Upset? No no. I’m happy to still be on the bike, so it’s an improvement compared to yesterday, joked Roglic – second overall now, 33s behind the Belgian -, remembering that the day before he left a little skin and half a jersey and shorts in a silly fall. “After the Itzulia fall I have done a lot of training and, definitely, I have not arrived here in my best shape, but I was already counting on it. I have preferred to compete rather than continue training. I never make this type of effort, almost an hour at full speed, in training, so I’m sure a lot of things can change between now and the end.”
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