BOLOGNA – Despite the thunder on the hot asphalt of San Luca, Primoz Roglic’s smile clears the clouds at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. It was one of the most difficult days on the Bologna hills for the Slovenian ace, used to racing with his arms raised at the Giro dell’Emilia with his royal hat-trick (2019, 2021, 2023). This time, however, it was forced to limit the damage by the terrible duo Pogacar-Vingegaard and by another tenacious tandem composed of Carapaz and Evenepoel.
Water on the fire
If Ecuadorian and Belgian reacted, the former world junior ski jumping champion lacked his usual inspiration on the toughest slopes. At the same time he didn’t sink and those 21 seconds left on the torrid day don’t scare him. He is the first to calm the watersgetting off the bus smiling and allowing himself a few jokes with the journalists after blowing a kiss to his wife Lora.
“It was hard. I wanted to stay with the best – she says – but I didn’t have legs and so I have to settle for what was».
At the time of Pogacar’s attack, “Rogla” was not in the position he should have been in, as he himself confirms: «Obviously I wasn’t at his wheel, I fell too far behind and so I couldn’t do anything about it.” To those who think that Sunday in Emilia could destabilize him, he replies: «It was a day in itself, I prefer to live this Tour day by day. It’s only the second stage and there are still 19 days to go.”
The master’s voice
Ralph Denk, founder and manager of the team, who at this Tour has Red Bull’s entry celebrated in cycling, it doesn’t hide.
«It wasn’t what we expected – he says – but in the end it’s only a handful of seconds, so we’ll have to analyze the stage in detail and talk more calmly with Primoz. I don’t have a lot of information. Surely the whole team got their positioning wrong at the first entrance of San Luca and this cost us a lot of energy that we then paid for. I’ll try to understand what happened”.
Alongside him in the most tense moments, Roglic had both Aleksandr Vlasov and Jai Hindley, who crossed the finish line in the same group as him. «The scorching heat made this weekend really tough, for us as well as for all the other teams. I am convinced that these high temperatures made the race less exciting because with ten degrees less maybe we would have seen something more», Denk comments again.
Gasparotto’s analysis
He also gets off the bus the sporting director Enrico Gasparotto who tries to analyze the stage. «On days with a finale like the one in Bologna – he says – Primoz is usually always there. But this fraction was atypical because It wasn’t a tense day, but calm for the first part and then explosive in the final.
«The Montecalvo and the two passages of San Luca were done at crazy speed, while before they were not. Maybe this influenced a rider with a certain experience and a bit of a diesel like him, compared to younger guys. Then, the entry into San Luca was much more technical than when tackling Emilia. There was the chicane that shuffled the cards a bit. I’ll talk about it with Primoz, but surely from the moment he arrived at our bus I saw him much calmer than I could have imagined».
Concerns about Pogacar
The ranking situation doesn’t scare the Friulian director: «Honestly I expected much more from Tadej in the first stage, as well as in the second. I thought that Uae held the race more and then tried to cause “misfortunes” in the last two climbs before the last stretch of San Luca. Certainly if Tadej, as he says, is better than in the Giro, I always expect fire and flames in this first week.
«So far, it has done less than I expected, but I think this heat has affected everyone, including him. Those who have been training in the Alps have found bad weather almost everywhere, while whoever went to Spain perhaps had a body more accustomed to these temperatures». Then he adds confidently: «Primoz has experience to spare and knows how to manage himself like few others».
The day of Sobrero
Today a bit of relaxation in the first opportunity for sprinters with the arrival in Turin. We will pass through the lands of Matteo Sobrero from Albawith his fan club scattered along the route between Barbaresco and the surrounding area to encourage him in his precious work in support of the Slovenian, three-time winner of the Vuelta a España (2019, 2020, 2021) and king of the Giro d’Italia 2023. Yesterday Matteo crossed the finish line 13’25” behind the winnerin the small group which also included an injured Wout Van Aert.
«Primoz was not at his best in this stage, maybe also because he suffered from the heat and he wasn’t used to this climate. He too came directly from the Tignes hill», says Matteo referring to last month’s training sessions. «We are all calm in the team also because the Tour has just started and the long climbs have yet to begin».
The third man is still standing: this time, however, It’s up to him to recover if he wants to cradle the yellow dream never dormant.
