Faced with an obvious question, Primož Roglič gave an obvious answer. “Are you satisfied with the result, Primož?” a television reporter inquired after stage 9 of the Giro d’Italia. “Yes,” he replied. What else did he need to say?
A little over a week ago in Ortona, Roglič conceded over two seconds per kilometre to Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) in the opening time trial of the Giro, and many expected the Belgian to dole out similar punishment over the 35km from Savignano sul Rubicone to Cesena on Sunday.
Indeed, over the first 13km of this test, Roglič was faring even worse than he had done in Abruzzo, shipping some 31 seconds – or 2.3 seconds per kilometre – to the Belgian. In the following Jumbo-Visma team car, directeur sportif Marc Reef feared a washout. “We thought ‘oh f… how is this going to be?’ because the time gap was already there,” he confessed.
Once the course swung into a section of cross-headwind, however, Roglič began to turn the tide, pulling back eight seconds on Evenepoel over the next 16km. He was quicker over the final portion of the course, too, finishing the stage in sixth place, just 17 seconds behind Evenepoel. In the overall standings, Roglič now lies third, 47 seconds off Evenepoel’s maglia rosa.
“I’m old,” Roglič joked. “I’m a bit slower at the start and then I’m a bit better at the finish.”
Roglič is also wily. While Evenepoel admitted afterwards that he had set off far too quickly and then paid a heavy price in the headwind section, Roglič’s pacing strategy was decided after early starter Edoardo Affini had provided the latest update on the conditions out on the course.
“When we did the recon this morning, there was almost no wind and it was really wet, of course,” Reef said. “But when Edo Affini finished, he said there was some headwind from kilometre 16 to 27, and that was the part where Primož could take some time. So Primož started a bit on reserve and then he went faster.”
Although Reef was keeping himself anxiously apprised of Evenepoel’s fast start, Jumbo-Visma elected not to pass on any of that intelligence on to Roglič, reasoning that it would have served little purpose on a course as uncomplicated as this. “We didn’t give any information,” Reef said. “All you can do is focus on yourself and do the best performance for yourself. It’s what we did in the first TT also.”
In that first time trial, Roglič conceded 43 seconds to Evenepoel in under 20km, but on a longer course on Sunday, the Slovenian…
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