Not even the best filmmaker would have imagined a narrative as exciting as the sports career of Cousin Roglic. Yesterday, on the infernal ramps of Monte Lussari, the Slovenian (33 years old) touched the sky. True to his style, with suffering, epic and maximum tension. After accumulating misfortunes in the last Tour and La Vuelta, the destiny finally smiled at a Roglic who well deserved it. 3 km from completing the finish line, a chain jump wowed the hearts of the Primoz followers, therefore, a large part of cycling lovers. But there it was Mitja Mežnar, his compatriot and former ski jumping teammate, to give him the necessary boost with which to resume the march of a time trial that had started in Tarvisio, a town where Roglic won his last competition as a jumper by proclaiming himself world junior team champion. The circle was closed. Movie script.
Twenty-four hours after experiencing one of the most exciting grand tour finales in history, with feelings still on the surface, Roglic was proclaimed champion of the Giro d’Italia in Rome, which is probably the greatest success of his impressive record. The Slovenian unites the no fine to his three Vueltas a España, which he won consecutively (2019, 2020, and 2021) to cross off his list of objectives an Italian round with which he could not 2019, when he was third, behind Richard Carapaz and Vincenzo Nibali. This year, without giving his best level due to the inconvenience caused as a result of the fall he suffered in the 11th stage, it was enough for Primoz to hit the center of the target at the right moment, winning a single stage (he has four in the Giro, all time trials) of similar characteristics to those that made him lose the 2020 Tour at the hands of Tadej Pogacar. Falling down and getting up, that infinite loop…
At his side, on the podium of the Eternal City, where Roglic traces the record of great tours of a Tony Rominger with whom he shares many similarities throughout his career, were Geraint Thomas and João Almeida, each of them with opposite feelings. The Welshman climbs back into the drawer in a big one (after three podiums in the Tour), which to his 37 years makes him the oldest rider in history to climb to the Giro podium, beating a cadel evans who achieved it in the 2013 edition with 36 springs. Having been the rider who wore the pink jersey the most days to lose the penultimate day by 14 seconds, the fourth narrowest margin in the history of the race, leaves a bitter taste, to say the least. Quite the opposite for an Almeida who has made history: the first Portuguese to get on the podium in the history of the Corsa Rosa. You have to go back to the mythical Joaquim Agostinho in the 1979 Tour, to find the last precedent for a Portuguese cyclist in the drawer of a big one, the only one who had achieved such a feat until Almeida.
Among so much emotion, the resolution of this last stage of the Giro was not going to be less. Mark Cavendish, who announced his retirement last Monday, says goodbye to one of the races where he has shone the most with one of the most prestigious triumphs possible, next to the Colosseum in Rome. He did it after a stage that fulfilled the traditional script. Initial walk, with Roglic receiving praise after praise and toasting with sparkling wine along with his teammates. After advance party of three runners in the circuit of the Eternal City, to which the runners had to complete a total of six laps. Benedetti, Bouet and Skujins got stuck on the last turn, at which point the sprinter teams took up positions. On the sprint approach, the Movistar complied to leave Fernando Gaviria well placed, so this time, the Colombian had everything to shine. However, the same thing as always happened: started too far and goodbye gasoline in the final meters. There emerged the figure of Cavendish, until now disappeared, to culminate a historical trajectory in the Corsa Pink, with its 17th stage (. A pity what happened a few seconds before, with a pile-up caused by a mistake by Pascal Ackerman, who came to crash into a fence after doing the ‘sharpener’ with Alberto Dainese. Luckily, the fallen were able to finish the race with minor injuries.
Thus ended an unforgettable Giro, for good and bad, whose spectacle has been enormously conditioned by the withdrawals of men like Remco Evenepoel and Tao Geoghegan, but that has left one of the most vibrant and emotional endings in the history of this sport. Rome greets its new emperor, the first Slovenian to achieve it in history. In his own right, he is already one of the greatest cyclists of all time. Hail, Cousin.
|
after cyclist | Equipment | Time |
|---|---|---|
1 | AST | 2:48:26 |
2 | TFS | +00:00 |
3 | GBF | +00:00 |
|
4 | DSM | +00:00 |
5 | ADC | +00:00 |
|
6 | GFC | +00:00 |
7 | MOV | +00:00 |
8 | JAY | +00:00 |
9 | ICW | +00:00 |
10 | JAY | +00:00 |
|
after cyclist | Equipment | Time |
|---|---|---|
1 | TJV | 85:29:02 |
|
2 | IGD | +00:14 |
3 | UAD | +01:15 |
|
4 | TBV | +04:40 |
5 | GFC | +05:43 |
6 | IGD | +06:05 |
7 | JAY | +07:30 |
8 | DSM | +07:31 |
|
9 | BOH | +07:46 |
|
10 | IGD | +09:08 |
See complete classification
stages
19 
Longarone – Tre Cime di Lavaredo
Santiago Buitrago
TBV
183km
Fri. 26-May
twenty Tarvisio – Mount Lussari
Cousin Roglic
TJV
18km
Sat. 27-May
twenty-one Rome – Rome
Mark Cavendish
AST
126km
Sun. 28-May
