A finish of unspeakable emotion, of brutal beauty, of insurmountable intensity gave Primoz Roglic victory in the stage and, barring a cosmic catastrophe, in the Giro. The Slovenian deserved the victory twice. First because he exhibited immense strength on the wall of Monte Lussari. And second, because, in the middle of the climb, when he was doing the best intermediate times, the chain came off in a bump.. In a pothole of nothing, ambushed only for him, to increase a wretched legend!
Putting the chain back on, almost tripping over the assistant who came to his aid and painfully getting up on the pedals again in the middle of that ungrateful wall cost the unfortunate a handful of seconds.. Primoz, gripped by despair and anguish, but impelled by them, turned into rage, in rebellion against a fate so often adverse, rose triumphantly against what seemed inevitable.. Against the loss to Geraint Thomas and the elements.
Surely that other time trial would come to mind, in the 2020 Tour, on the Planche des Belles Filles, when a childish wolf, a fierce compatriot with a novice smile named Tadej Pogacar snatched his victory in the queen “in extremis” of the races. Cycling, life has now provided him with a sweet revenge in the midst of that despair and that anguish that he has given for well spent, for well suffered, for well savored.
Only Roglic, with 44:23, at an average of 25.1 km. per hour on a 7.5-kilometre wall, with a 22% maximum gradient and an average of 12.1% after a plain in which it was flown, dropped from 45 minutes. Thomas did 45:03 and Joao Almeida, 45:05. In the overall he leads the Briton by 14 seconds, the fourth shortest in the history of the Giro, and the Portuguese by 1:15. The shortest was set in 1948. Fiorenzo Magni took 11 seconds off Ezio Cecchi. Unforgettable performance by Roglic, a cyclist in his maturity, at 33 years and seven months.
The Giro “yes, it’s a country for old men.”
The Giro “yes, it’s a country for old men. In the cycling era of precocity, the race has been played in the last envy a man of 37 years and three days on Sunday and another, it has already been said, 33 long. Roglic, may Thomas forgive us, has prevented someone as veteran as the Briton from being crowned in Rome. At 37 you “can’t” win a grand tour, although Chris Horner, won the 2013 Vuelta at 41 years and 328 days. The anomaly is of such caliber that it almost doesn’t count. Horner, a rider of the bunch before 2013, never won a race again.
Fiorenzo Magni won the 1955 Giro at 34 years and six months.. But not at 37. Fermin Lambot did the same in the 1922 Tour at 36 years and 130 days, but not at 37. But not at 37. If Thomas had won, it would have been to the rider’s credit and the race’s demerit. Wasn’t it hard enough? Yes, it was. But the riders softened it up. The favorites only went all out, obviously, in the three stages against the clock. In the most important online ones, they attacked in a couple of them and in the last meters.
But the excitement on this Monte Lussari for the Giro legend, but the fierceness poured out has compensated for so much previous meekness. Roglic, at the border gates of his Slovenia, surrounded by flags of his country, wears pink. It suits him very well.