Ex-ski jumper flies to new Tour heights
With 40 career victories under Primoz Roglic’s belt, George Bennett says he would have felt like ‘‘a bit of a d…’’ had he demanded a leadership role over the Slovenian heading into the Tour de France.
Although Bennett was in the form of his life after backing up his Gran Piemonte triumph with a second place finish at Il Lombardia, the Kiwi was willing to concede that Roglic, the winner of yesterday’s fourth stage, was Jumbo-visma’s best chance of winning the yellow jersey.
He went as far as labelling Roglic, a former ski jumper who only made the switch to cycling in his early 20s, the best rider on the planet right now, a statement backed up by Roglic’s UCI ranking.
‘‘He’s the best rider in the world now, he’s world No 1 and he’s just cruising in all the races so far,’’ Bennett said.
Roglic’s sporting career started out on the snow. He was a ski jumper in his teens and even won a world junior title before making the switch to road cycling in 2012 following a heavy crash.
But despite turning to cycling later in life, joining Jumbo-visma 12 months after Bennett’s move in 2015, Bennett said Roglic’s enormous potential was evident from the beginning.
He honed his skills on the bike with Adria Mobil, a semiprofessional team from Slovenia, for three years before joining the Worldtour with Jumbo-visma.
‘‘The team said straight away that they’ve tested him and he’s really good, but they sort of didn’t know if they could unlock [his potential] and put it on the bike because when he first got on the bike he was a bit sketchy here and there. But after a month or two he was already winning and in his first year as a pro he won a TT at the Giro.’’
After breaking through as a time trial specialist, Roglic shot to stardom in 2018 and 2019. He went on a remarkable winning streak by notching three consecutive stage race wins on two separate occasions.
He cracked the podium at a grand tour for the first time by finishing third at the Giro d’italia last year before staking his claim for a leadership role at the 2020 Tour de France by winning the Vuelta a Espana.
Yesterday, Roglic backed up his favourite tag by surging clear of the chasing pack to win the first mountain stage. He is currently seven seconds behind race leader Julian Alaphilippe in third overall.
‘‘He’s really fast in terms of sprinting and has the high power of all the ranges where a guy like me, I’ve got a really good aerobic power, which is whatmakes me a good climber relative to my weight,’’ Bennett said.
‘‘But he has this amazing fasttwitch ability and he’s super good at the end of races where he can sprint with everybody, and he can also produce the power on the time trial bike. There’s not many situations he can’t win from whereas pretty much other GC rider needs a mountain or a hill in there somewhere.’’
In comparison to Bennett’s Tour of California win in 2017 and his recent Gran Piemonte triumph, Bennett conceded there was no question as to who deserved to lead Jumbo-visma at the Tour de France this year, with Roglic co-leading the team alongside star signing Tom Dumoulin, the runner-up in 2018.
‘‘It’s a lot easier to buy into it when your team can win,’’ Bennett said. ‘‘When you have a guy so clearly better you’d just feel like a bit of a d… saying ‘well I also want to be a leader’.’’