Thirty-three-year-old Roglič wore the pink jersey of the leading competitor for the first time at this year’s Giro after Saturday’s mountain time trial. In it, despite the fallen chain, he won by 40 seconds ahead of the previous leader Geraint Thomas and surpassed his British opponent in the overall standings by 14 seconds. On the last day, big races are traditionally fought only for the stage victory.
The 14-second gap between the top two riders at the Giro is the smallest since 1974, when Eddy Merckx won by 12 seconds ahead of Gianbattista Baronchelli. Portugal’s Joao Almeida finished third this year with a distance of 1:15 minutes.
Roglič, leader of the Jumbo-Visma team, claimed his fourth Grand Tour triumph after winning the Vuelta in 2019-2021. At the Giro, the former ski jumper’s best finish so far in 2019 was third, and this year he became his first Slovenian winner.
Photo: Jennifer Lorenzini, Reuters
Primož Roglič dominated the Giro d’Italia
The final stage, much of which went through the center of Rome past ancient monuments, had a fairytale ending for Cavendish. The former world champion announced on Monday that he would retire this year and today, seven days after his 38th birthday, in front of the Coliseum, he became the oldest stage winner in the race’s history.
At the Giro, Cavendish claimed his 17th triumph and with his 54th win over the Grand Tour secured third place in the all-time tables behind Merckx (63) and the Italian Mario Cipollini (57). At the same time, the native of the Isle of Man achieved his 162nd professional victory and caught up with the second Belgian Rik van Looy. The unbeatable Merckx has 275 triumphs to his credit.
Karel Vacek finished the Giro in 84th place, who flashed second place in the seventh stage on his first Grand Tour. The twenty-two-year-old native of Prague arrived in Rome as the only one from the original trio of Czechs.
After the 10th stage, Jan Hirt and Josef Černý had to withdraw due to the coronavirus, a few days after the race ended for the same reason for their Soudal-Quick Step team leader Remco Evenepoel. According to paper assumptions, the Belgian world champion was supposed to be Roglič’s main opponent in the fight for the overall championship, and the Giro had to give up first place due to covid-19.
| Business card of Primože Rogliča |
|---|
| Date and place of birth: 29 October 1989, Trbovlje |
| Nationality: Slovenia |
| Height and weight: 177 cm, 65 kg |
| Professional career: Adria Mobil (2013-15), LottoNL-Jumbo/Jumbo-Visma (from 2016) |
| Biggest achievements: 3x Vuelta winner (2019-21), Gira d’Italia winner 2023); World Tour stage winner Tour de Basque 2018 and 2021, Tour de Romandie 2018 and 2019, Tirreno-Adriatico 2019 and 2023, Tour SAE 2019, one-off Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2020, Critérium du Dauphiné 2022, Paris-Nice 2022, Tour de Catalunya 2023 ; WC 2017 (Bergen) – silver, 2021 Olympics (Tokyo) – gold (both time trial) |
| Awards: 2x the best Slovenian athlete of the year (2019-20) |
| Family: married, in 2021 he married Lora Klincová, they have a son Lev |
| Others: one of the best road cyclists of today, between 2019 and 2021 he held the top of the world rankings for 75 weeks, setting a new record (beat by compatriot Tadej Pogačar); former ski jumper, won team gold at the 2007 World Junior Championships; after a dangerous fall in Planica and the transition to the senior category, he stopped doing well, so he stopped jumping; he started racing cycling only at the age of 22, after four seasons he won the Tour of Slovenia stage race and earned a contract with the leading LottoNL-Jumbo team; he made his Grand Tour debut in 2016 at the Giro, where he finished third overall three years later; at the Tour de France in 2020, Pogačar unexpectedly deprived him of the overall triumph in the final time trial; the previous two editions of the Tour, Roglič did not finish after falls in the same way as last year’s Vuelta, which he previously won three times in a row; this year he already won the stages Tirreno-Adriatico and the Tour of Catalonia, the Tour decided to skip; has its own website www.primozroglic.com. |
