ROGLIČ IS THE TOUR FAVOURITE
Despite the beating he took at the hands of Tadej Pogacar at the 2020 Tour, Primož Roglic may yet start the 2021 event as the favourite. The terrain favours him - he’s less vulnerable to Pogacar in a flat TT, of which there are two - and his team is formidably strong, welldrilled and motivated. But most of all, he showed formidable mental resilience in bouncing back from his defeat in France.
That last-ditch defeat, at the hands of a younger compatriot to rub salt in the wounds, should have shattered him emotionally. And during and after that final time trial, he looked utterly shellshocked. However, he bounced back almost immediately to ride well at the Worlds then win Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Vuelta a España, despite looking like he was struggling to hold on to top physical form. On the penultimate day in Spain, he was put under intense pressure by Richard Carapaz, but held himself together to defend his lead and win the race for the second successive year.
Most riders would take a year, if not many years, to recover from an experience like the Planche des Belles Filles time trial. It took Roglic a week.