THOMAS’ GIRO HOPES FADE IN TIME TRIAL
PRIMOZ Roglic all but secured the Giro d’Italia title yesterday by overtaking leader Geraint Thomas on the penultimate stage despite having a mechanical problem on the mountain time trial.
Roglic started the stage 26 seconds behind the Welshman – who was trying to become the oldest Giro champion in history – but finished the route 40 seconds quicker than Thomas after the demanding climb of the Monte Lussari.
That saw Roglic move into the leader’s pink jersey, 14 seconds ahead of Thomas going into the race’s mainly ceremonial final stage today.
It will be a fourth Grand Tour victory for Roglic, who won the Spanish Vuelta three years in a row from 2019-2021
Roglic also almost won the Tour de France in 2020, when was leading going into another mountain time trial on the penultimate stage. But that time it was Roglic who lost time and the race to compatriot Tadej Pogacar in one of the most memorable upsets in a Grand Tour in recent years.
It appeared as if the Jumbo-Visma cyclist’s hopes were evaporating again when he rode over a pothole about halfway through the brutal climb up Monte Lussari and his chain came off, meaning he had to quickly change bicycles.
His team-mates and staff had their hands over their heads in disbelief.
Despite that setback, Roglic – who had been 16 seconds ahead of Thomas at the previous intermediate time check – went on to increase his advantage.
The 33-year-old Roglic won the stage by a clear margin over Thomas. Almeida was third, 42 seconds slower.
For Thomas, his bad luck at the Giro continued. In 2017, he was involved in a crash caused by a police motorbike, and three years later he fractured his hip after a drinks bottle became lodged under his wheel – being forced to abandon both times.
Thomas, who turned 37 on Thursday, had seemed poised to become the oldest Giro winner in history – beating the record of Fiorenzo Magni, who was 34 when he won in 1955.
The Giro will finish in Rome today, with 10 laps of an 11.5-kilometer (7-mile) circuit through the streets of the capital, taking in many of its historic sites.
The route will pass by places such as the Altare della Patria, the Capitoline Hill, the Circus Maximus and finish at the Imperial Forums, in the shadow of the Colosseum.