An on-form Primoz Roglic of the Jumbo Visma team surprised the favorites with a win in the opening time trial of the 2019 Giro d’Italia in Bologna, Italy.
The Slovenian beat pre-race favorites Simon Yates and Vincenzo Nibali by 19 and 23 seconds, respectively.
For Roglic, the victory is his eighth win of the season.
“I am super happy. It’s an amazing feeling that I’ve won and that I’ll start in the pink jersey tomorrow”, Roglic said. The time trial in Bologna finished on San Luca, a climb of two kilometres with an average of ten percent. “I didn’t have any tactics. I started fast and tried to keep my pace on the climb. This is a great start, but I’m aware that the happiest man on earth will be the man who’ll wear the jersey in Verona. There’s a long way to go, but we started very well. I’m looking forward to the upcoming three weeks.”
According to Head of Performance Mathieu Heijboer, everything came together today. “Primoz has developed himself really quickly in our team. This is the first time we started with him as the absolute leader. This time trial suited him very well. It’s great it all worked out.”
Roglic rode his race with a special handle bar. Heijboer: “Also, the development of the time trial suit from AGU, the bike and all the work in the wind tunnel of TU Eindhoven have contributed to this result. Besides that, we’ve developed a new handle bar together with Jumbo, FSA and Bianchi. This handle bar was custom made for Primoz. It fits his time trial position, it’s lighter and more aerodynamic and it’s much more comfortable than the handle bar he used before. We’re very grateful to our partners who have invested a lot in this for our team.”
Yates appeared to take it easy on the final climb of the short TT, having only been slightly back at the climb’s base.
More news to come!
Stage 1 Brief Results:
- Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) in 12’54”
- Simon Yates (Mitchelton-SCOTT) at 19″
- Vincenzo Nibali (Team Bahrain-Merida) at 23″
- Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) at 28″
- Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) s.t.
- Rafal Majka (BORA-hansgrohe) at 33″
- Tao Geoghegan Hart (Team Ineos) at 35″
- Laurens de Plus (Jumbo Visma) s.t.
- Bauke Mollema (Trek Segafredo) at 39″
- Damiano Caruso (Team Bahrain Merida) at 40″
General Classification After Stage 1:
- Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo – Visma)
- Simon Yates (Mitchelton – Scott) at 19″
- Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain – Merida) at 23″
Jerseys:
- Maglia Rosa (pink), general classification leader, sponsored by Enel – Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo – Visma)
- Maglia Ciclamino (cyclamen), sprinter classification leader, sponsored by Segafredo – Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo – Visma) – jersey worn tomorrow by Simon Yates (Mitchelton – Scott)
- Maglia Azzurra (blue), King of the Mountains classification leader, sponsored by Banca Mediolanum – Giulio Ciccone (Trek – Segafredo)
- Maglia Bianca (white), young rider general classification leader, sponsored by Eurospin – Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana Pro Team)
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