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In the second stage of the Tour de France in Bologna, Primoz Roglic failed to stay with the best. Highly anticipated in San Luca, rightly considering his climbyesterday the other Slovenian clearly missed the target and in the end lost 21 seconds compared to its rivals. “It was hard, I didn’t have the legs I was hoping for”he said.
The Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe leader played no role in the final climb of the San Luca. He was already close to the gap when Tadej Pogacar accelerated at the top of the steep climb. “I wasn’t where I was supposed to be and I had to come from too far away. I couldn’t do anything.”, was the Slovenian’s clear conclusion at the finish line in Bologna. Roglic, however, concludes with optimism: “Fortunately there are still 19 stages to go.”
In the general classification, Roglic now sits in 19th place after two stages, 21 seconds behind yellow jersey Tadej Pogacar. According to Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe sports director Rolf Aldag, Roglic doesn’t have to worry about that. “The team did a great job and Primoz did what he could. We can’t get angry about that.”he told Rouleur.
“It is clear that the situation is very different if you run for a team for eight years and if you have been doing it for six months”, Everyday compares Roglic’s situation in his new team with the situation of the last few years at Jumbo-Visma. “We have to make up for some of that history with extra effort, and I feel like the team did that today and will continue to do that.”
The teammate Jai Hindley he was able to work a lot for Roglic in the descent and the flat finish towards Bologna. “If I had had legs, I could have still been there, but I was really at the limit”the Australian said. “After the summit I managed to get ahead and take the lead with Aleksandr Vlasov, which allowed us to limit the damage. It was a good team effort, we gave it our all. It wasn’t a disastrous day, because there will be many more days to come”.
