Roglic wins Tirreno-Adriatico

Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) proved the superior time triallist to claim the overall victory in Tirreno-Adriatico on the final stage, pushing Mitchelton-Scott’s Adam Yates off the top of the podium by a single second.

Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) held onto third overall, losing 20 of seconds to Roglic but, with an overnight buffer of 1:20, the Dane was under no threat of being pushed out of a podium position from Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb).

European time trial champion Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) won the stage as anticipated, topping Italian Alberto Bettiol (EF Education First) and Jumbo-Visma's Jos van Emden.

"I did a perfect time trial. I knew that it was important to come back really strong because the headwind was really strong. I always have a good second part to my time trial and it seemed to be the perfect time trial today," Campenaerts said.

"It's very good for the motivation that I can take this win. For two years I've been aiming for a WorldTour win in the time trial. It's very difficult to get one and today it worked out fine. I'm really happy.

"Maybe it was a little bit like a world championships. I don't know which specialists weren't here. It is really satisfying."

With Campenaerts spending more than two hours at the top of the leaderboard, all eyes were on the end of the start list, with overnight leader Yates and notable time trial threat Roglic separated by 25 seconds in the general classification, and Fuglsang at 35 seconds in third.

Roglic came through the first check just 10 seconds off the quickest time at 4.4km, and held onto that pace to finish just outside the top 10 on the stage. Yates, on the other hand, was giving up time all along the course, with the countdown clock ticking to single digits as he approached the line.

It was a tense wait as the race leader Yates fought valiantly along the finishing straight, giving his all but falling just one second shy of winning the overall race.

How it unfolded

With his sights firmly on an attempt to break Bradley Wiggins' Hour Record, Victor Campenaerts set off as the 19th of 144 riders and unleashed his fury on the 10.05km course in San Benedetto del Tronto. The Belgian smashed an earlier mark set by UAE's Tom Bohli by 20 seconds, setting a time of 11:23 - or 53 kilometres per hour. He will hope to go more than 54.526kph in a few weeks time on the velodrome in Aguascalientes.

Jos van Emden (Jumbo-Visma) was the first to come close to Campenaerts' effort, but fell four seconds shy.

There were a few riders to go quicker than Campenaerts at the intermediate check - Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) had the fastest split after 4.4km, world champion Rohan Dennis (Bahrain-Merida) was one second shy of the Dane, but the European champion's pacing proved superior in the second half.

A glut of riders came through well off the pace before the overall favourites came to the start ramp, but a surprising ride from Alberto Bettiol (EF Education First) caused a stir of excitement, with the Italian finding a favourable breeze on the second stretch of the course to come in three seconds down on Campenaerts.

The seaside breeze seemed to pick up for the late starters, and even Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) could not come close to Campenaerts' time.

The GC battle picked up in earnest as Fuglsang, Roglic and Yates took to the course.

Roglic put in a stellar performance to come in 11 seconds down on the stage winner and it was all nerves for Yates as he bled seconds all along the coastal road to the line.

In the end, Yates sprinted to the line in his aero tuck, shooting across heartbreakingly close but not close enough to keep the overall.

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