Primoz Roglic is the first leader in the Tour of the Basque Country. The Slovenian, who exchanged the Jumbo team for Bora-Hansgrohe after last season, needed 12.34 minutes to complete the ten-kilometer opening time trial in Irún. Remco Evenepoel crashed and eliminated himself from the day’s victory. The world time trial champion escaped unscathed.
Evenepoel already slid in one of the first corners. True to character, he managed to limit the damage with a neat fourth place, 11 seconds behind Roglic. Although the time trial did not go smoothly for the Slovenian either. He was a little too enthusiastic in the final phase and drove straight instead of turning left, but quickly recovered from his miss.
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Jonas Vingegaard was unable to take advantage of his competitors’ mistakes. The Dane from Visma – Lease a Bike finished fifth at fifteen seconds.
“A great start to the round,” Roglic said afterwards in the flash interview. “I drove in the wrong direction for a while, but luckily it didn’t change the result. It is only the first day and we have to take it one day at a time because there is still a long way to go.”
Fear of rain
Roglic and the other contenders for the overall victory all started in the first hour of the schedule due to fear of possible rain later in the afternoon. After the failure of the Englishman Tom Pidcock, who fell during reconnaissance, Juan Ayuso was the first of the big names. The Spaniard clocked the fastest time at that moment, but moments later saw Roglic 16 seconds faster.
The Dane Jonas Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike seemed to be far behind halfway through Roglic, but last year’s overall winner managed to make up some ground in the second part.
The Dane Mattias Skjelmose crossed the line just 10 seconds behind Roglic, but Vine (UAE Team Emirates) was still 3 seconds faster than the Dane later in the afternoon. The British Ethan Hayter then seemed to be able to threaten Roglic, but he was hampered by a rain shower and finished ninth.
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Tags: Incidentrich start Basque Country winner Primoz Roglic drives wrong Evenepoel crashes Sport
