Primoz Roglic has taken the overall victory in Tirreno-Adriatico. The Slovenian leader of Team Jumbo-Visma managed to make up 25 seconds on Adam Yates in a blistering time trial. He eventually won the general classification with a margin of less than one second.
For Roglic, it is his second consecutive final victory in a WorldTour stage race. Last month, he already won the UAE Tour. For the Slovenian it is his third victory of the season, the eighth for Team Jumbo-Visma.
In the ten kilometre long time trial in San Benedetto del Tronto, time trial specialist Jos van Emden finished third. The Dutchman finished on the podium for the third consecutive year. He finished second in the two previous years. Roglic finished eleventh.
Roglic was more than happy with his victory. “I cannot describe and express my feelings. This is incredibly beautiful. It was very exciting and the difference is very small. It was really close. But sometimes you have to be lucky. I gave everything I had. There was a lot of headwind and I tried to make the difference in the second part. That worked out. I have to thank the whole team. This would have never been possible without my teammates. They were all very strong. I am proud of what we have shown again as a team this week. It was a very tough week and we rode really fast in every stage. This is a huge boost for me and the team in the run-up to the goals that are yet to come. In particular the Giro.”
Van Emden was happy with his teammate’s overall victory, but would have liked to win the time trial. “This time trial was my main goal this spring. I did not feel that my time trial was good enough for the win, but feelings can deceive sometimes. In the end it was not a bad time trial. I proved that I am among the best in this discipline. I really want to have this time trial on my palmarès, so I’m going to try again next season.”
It was heartbreak for Adam Yates as he lost the leader’s jersey by less than a single second to Roglic after a brave effort in the time trial.
“It was a hard TT, I’ve done this TT many times and I always lose a chunk of time and it was close, but it wasn’t enough, that’s how it goes, that’s bike racing.”
“I did the best I could, I said yesterday that 25 seconds isn’t really enough. But I did a good TT, I’ll have to look back but I think the power was good and I held my position for as long as I could.”
“There wasn’t much more I could do, the strongest man won, but for sure next year I’ll be back and hopefully I can comeback stronger.”
“This is the first big goal of the season, and I got pretty close, next up I’ve got some more big races, I’ve got Catalunya and Basque Country next, so the form is good, the condition is good and a few days to recover now before Catalunya.”
Victory in the stage went to Lotto Soudal rider Victor Campenaerts, his maiden World Tour win. Early in the time trial, the European champion set an impressive time of 11’23”. After more than two nail-biting hours in the hot seat, the Belgian could finally breathe a sigh of relief as no one was able to beat his time. Alberto Bettiol (11’26”) and Jos van Emden (11’27”) finished second and third, respectively.
Victor Campenaerts: “It feels amazing to take my first victory in a WorldTour time trial. I was already close last year and also this year, I started the season with the goal of winning in the WorldTour. If that succeeds in the first time trial of the season, that’s of course fantastic! With for example Küng and van Emden – a real short-distance specialist – the world’s best time triallists were here today. Moreover, I hadn’t been able to beat Tom Dumoulin and Rohan Dennis before. That’s of course a big satisfaction. The team time trial gave me an idea about my shape, but of course you want to confirm that in-race, which also succeeded.”
“It was quite windy today and until the intermediate point, we had a tailwind. So, I tried to save some energy during the first kilometres as I rode just beneath my average wattage. That also explains my time at the intermediate time check. Then, I would try – with some power left in the legs – to make the difference in the second part of the race. That strategy turned out to be the right one. During the final kilometre, I had the feeling that I went a little above my limit, but eventually everything worked out. After I finished, I still had to wait for over two hours in the hot seat. In the end, some really strong guys like Dumoulin and Roglič still had to start but eventually, no one was able to beat my time. Everything I do is in light of the Hour Record, but my victory today is a really good sign.”
Stage 7 Brief Results:
- Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) at 11’23”
- Alberto Bettiol (EF Education First) at 3″
- Jos van Emden (Team Jumbo-Visma) at 4″
- Sebastian Langeveld (EF Education First) at 6″
- Yves Lampaert (Deceuninck-QuickStep) at 7″
Final General Classification:
- Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo-Visma) at 25h28’00”
- Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) at 1″
- Jakob Fuglsang (Astana Pro Team) at 30″
- Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) at 1’25”
- Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) at 2’32”
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