May 27, 2023
Three years after his Planche des Belles Filles heartbreak, the Jumbo-Visma rider achieves redemption
The circumstances were almost unbelievably similar. It was an uphill time trial on the penultimate day of a Grand Tour, one which required riders to switch bikes at the foot of the final climb. Primož Roglič had a shot of winning, but only if he was on a very good day. He was one of the last riders to set off by virtue of his high standing on the general classification, and his Jumbo-Visma teammates, who had all completed their efforts, stood at the top of the climb, waiting. The watching of the clock was agonising. Their hearts raced as the time was announced at each intermediate checkpoint. Every rider in the team had worked painstakingly hard over three weeks for this very moment. Slovenian fans lined the side of the road, willing on Roglič who spun the legs quickly in his trademark style. Hoping, dreaming, praying that this time, things would go right.
There were moments today when the closeness of stage 20 of the 2023 Giro d’Italia to Roglič’s disastrous ride on Les Planche des Belle Filles in the 2020 Tour de France was almost too painful to bear. On that stage, three years ago in the heart of the Vosges Mountains, Roglič lost the Tour that everyone expected him to win. It was a freakishly off day for the Slovenian who had been unflappable to that point. Images of Roglič riding up the steep climb with his time trial helmet slipping back off his forehead, sweat dripping onto his top tube, teeth gritted, have carved a place for themselves in cycling’s history as one of the biggest heartbreaks the sport has ever seen. The faces of his teammates watching at the top of the climb as the disaster unfolded in front of them are etched into the minds of cycling fans everywhere.
This dark, harrowing time trial likely still sits in a quiet corner of Primož Roglič’s memory. Losing the biggest race in the world because of one hour of poor form is not something that will be easily forgotten, especially when Roglič has been unable to win a Tour de France since. It’s for this very reason that the Jumbo-Visma rider’s performance today at the Giro d’Italia is so impressive. Echoes of that dreaded day in the Tour de France would have undoubtedly been swirling around his mind in the lead up to…