Primož Roglič knew from the first pedal strokes that it was going to be one of those days. 46km is a long time to sit staring at the writing on the wall, but the Slovenian had little option but to grind out the Road World Championships time trial in Zürich and salvage what he could from the afternoon.
The rolling terrain in the middle portion of the course, not to his mention his recent Vuelta a España victory, had Roglič among the favourites for the title here. Instead, those efforts in Spain seemed to weigh heavily on Roglič, who faded from the hunt for the medals almost as soon as he left the start in the Oerlikon velodrome.
After 10km, Roglič was already 37 seconds down on the eventual winner Remco Evenepoel (Belgium). The rest of his afternoon was an exercise in damage limitation. He was 1:15 behind atop the climb to Uetikon am See, and 1:35 back as he entered the flat final 10km along the lakeshore.
By then, silver medallist Filippo Ganna (Italy) was closing in rapidly, and Roglič would be passed by his two-minute man within sight of the line, a mirror of his display at the 2019 Worlds in Yorkshire. Then as now, that subdued performance had followed a Vuelta victory and Roglič also had to settle for 12th place here, some 2:06 behind Evenepoel.
Some defeats are more easily digested than others. Roglič has suffered his share of heartache at the biggest events over the years, but there was no lasting trauma from this defeat, just the transient pain of the effort. He wore a rueful smile as he made his way through the mixed zone after the finish. There are days like this, too, even for a rider like Roglič.
“It’s no secret. Whatever I do, I always want to win so for sure I’m disappointed but on the other hand, it’s like, some things are better suited for me and some a bit less,” Roglič said.
“I don’t want to have any excuses, I really gave everything on the road today, from the start until the finish. But, whoa, it was really tough. I was really suffering. Obviously, I’m still a bit tired from the Vuelta or something. It was really hard to push myself the way you need to do in a time trial like this. I’m just glad I finished, eh.”
Roglič has come through a season of demands both emotional and physical. He suffered another, enduring disappointment at the Tour de France, when he was forced out by a crash in the second week. Although he suffered a broken vertebra in the crash in Villeneuve-sur-Lot, Roglič somehow found himself on the start line of the Vuelta a España barely five weeks later, where muscle memory seemed to kick into action.
Like he had done after previous Tour setbacks, Roglič quietly set about the business of winning the Vuelta, though it was a hard-fought affair. He spent the bones of two weeks chipping away at Ben O’Connor’s overall lead. Then, after wresting the red jersey from O’Connor with two days remaining, Roglič and his entire Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe squad fell ill on the final weekend. A record-equalling fourth Vuelta victory was secured, but a two-week turnaround hardly sufficed to recalibrate for the Worlds time trial.
“It’s still hard to say or to give a really honest opinion of the whole thing,” Roglič said of the impact of the Vuelta on his Worlds preparation. “It was just a really tough three weeks, we were racing really hard. And we finished really on the edge, everyone. And then goes fast, two weeks.
"You take one week off and the other week I tried to ride a bit and prepare. Then I had to come here and – bam – here I am, going all out. It was tough, but I’ll just now try to prepare myself for next Sunday.”
Road race
Despite his obvious fatigue in the time trial, Roglič still harbours justified hopes of wringing more from his season, which will continue until Il Lombardia next month.
“Obviously I came here just to keep a bit the rhythm for the last part of the season – otherwise at my age, it’s hard to keep it going,” Roglič grinned.
In 2019, incidentally, Roglič recovered from his below-par Worlds time trial to win the Giro dell’Emilia, but it remains to be seen if he can regain his full powers quickly enough to play a key role in the World Championships road race next weekend.
Tadej Pogačar will lead the Slovenian team as he chases the historic Triple Crown, but Worlds history is dotted with winners who have benefited from the tight marking afforded to a more heavily favoured compatriot. Witness, for example, Stephen Roche’s victory in 1987, when all eyes were on his Irish teammate Sean Kelly.
“Bah, if I’m like today, it doesn’t really help much, eh?” Roglič said when asked if the time trial effort would help his road race preparation.
“But obviously it’s a completely different story next Sunday. First of all, I just want to rest a bit. Then we’ll see day by day how it goes, and I’ll try to prepare. Looking to our team, it will be really nice to be a part of it. We have strong guys on the paper, but we need to do it on the road on Sunday.”
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