Primož Roglič of Jumbo-Visma has done the ride of his life today to win the Giro d’Italia, flying up a mountainside in one of the hardest individual time trial courses in the race’s history to bypass Geraint Thomas of INEOS Grenadiers and take over the maglia rosa by 14 seconds heading into tomorrow’s concluding stage in Rome.
Roglič, the defending Olympic time trial champion but on a vastly different type of terrain, was on a terrific ride over the flat-to-modestly undulating first phase of the course, before changing bikes to his single-chainring/giant cog climbing bike, at which point he went positively nuclear. Roglic’s lead on the stage soared to thirty, forty seconds, and it was clear he was doing something special.
But with 26 seconds’ deficit to overcome and little information about Thomas’ performance behind him other than a time split before the climb that showed them neck and neck, Roglič appeared to see his hopes cruelly dashed as he bounced through a dip in the pavement and dropped his SRAM chain from the massive 44-tooth cog. Roglic dismounted, reoriented the chain, and got a push from a fan and mechanic to get going again, but it was a horror scene that seemed like it would revive the nightmares of his 2020 Tour de France defeat on the Planche des Belles Filles time trial stage, where Tadej Pogačar snatched victory away.
Roglič wasn’t done, however. His legs took over again, and under a canopy of Slovenian flags and ear-splitting noise from his screaming compatriots in attendance everywhere along the course, Roglič resumed his pace and the gap went back up.
Behind him, Thomas was feeling his legs go out on him. He reported at the finish line that the sensations turned negative along the persistent 15-20% gradients of Monte Lussari, a course that looks more like a walking path than a cycling route, and by the time Thomas reached the final kilometer — with its own little 22% punch — his chances to retain his lead had gone away.
Photo by LUCA BETTINI/AFP via Getty Images
Thomas would finish in 45:03, just ahead of fellow UAE’s João Almeida but fully 40 seconds behind Roglič, who took the stage by the largest gap between any two riders on the final classification. By contrast, his 14 second lead that Roglič will carry into Rome tomorrow is the fourth-narrowest margin of victory, assuming no…
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