Primoz Roglic wins Tour de l'Ain stage 2 ahead of Egan Bernal

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Having narrowly failed to capitalise on the hard work of his Jumbo-Visma teammates on stage one at the Tour de l’Ain, Primoz Roglic judged his sprint to perfection to win the second stage in Lélex Monts Jura.

Roglic finished a couple of bike lengths clear of Egan Bernal (Team Ineos), with Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates) on the Colombian’s wheel in third. As race leader Andrea Bagioli (Deceuninck-QuickStep) had been dropped on the last of five categorised climbs, the victory moved the Slovenian into the leader’s jersey, 10 seconds ahead of Bernal before Sunday’s final stage to the summit of the Grand Colombier.

Jumbo-Visma fully deserved their success, the Dutch team taking up the pace-making with 35 kilometres remaining and producing the kind of “steam-roller” performance that we’re used to seeing from their British rivals. 

They first reeled in the five-man break, then set about shredding the peloton, Robert Gesink and Tom Dumoulin both heavily involved, their pace-setting reducing the front group to single figures, Jumbo-Visma and Ineos both having three riders among the leading nine approaching the top of that final climb, the Col des Menthières.

On its upper slopes, George Bennett took over, the Kiwi reducing the front group to six members, his teammates Roglic and Steven Kruiswijk glued to his wheel, Bernal the only Ineos rider in the mix, with Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) at the back of this line.

With 11km remaining, Kruiswijk made a solo attack, attempting to isolate Bernal. That this failed was largely down to Ineos’s Jonathan Castroviejo, who bridged back to the leaders with Conti and provided some much-needed assistance to his Colombian team leader, who then finished the job of closing down Kruijswijk with 7.5km to the line.

Kruijswijk made another attempt to go solo just inside the two-kilometre mark. When this was nullified, he still had enough left to lead out the sprint, Mollema jumping first, only to be hobbled by a mechanical. Bernal accelerated, but Roglic swept past him to take the stage and complete a hugely impressive show of force by his Dutch team.

“It was a perfect day. The whole team did a really great job and I was super happy that I could finish it off,” said Roglic. “It was definitely nice to see that the other guys are also strong. We’re here to find the right feelings and we’re concentrating on that.”

Looking ahead to the Tour de France, Roglic commented: “For the moment everything is going well, but we’re just taking things day by day.”

How it happened

The stage featured five categorised climbs. On the first of them, the Col de Montgriffon, five riders went clear: Jaakko Hanninen (AG2R La Mondiale), Simon Guglielmi (Groupama-FDJ), Nils Politt (Israel Start-Up Nation), Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo) and Joey Rosskopf (CCC Team). 

Their lead reached four minutes on the second climb, the Col des Pezières, and edged out another 30 seconds or so going over the third, the Col de Cuvillat. On the penultimate ascent of the Côte de Giron, the peloton began to chip away at the break’s advantage, the gap falling significantly enough that Romain Sicard (Total Direct Energie) and Simon Pellaud (Androni Giocattoli) attempted to bridge the gap to the escapees.

Sicard quickly dropped Pellaud and got to within 90 seconds of the leaders, only to see the Jumbo-led peloton cruise past. Politt was reeled in soon after Sicard. Guglielmi was the next to eaten up and dropped, as first Robert Gesink and then Tom Dumoulin pulled the peloton within sight of the three remaining escapees.

At this point, on the lower slopes of the Menthières, Hanninen hit out on his own. Not far behind the Finn now, the bunch was scattered by a final burst of power from Dumoulin, who passed the pace-making baton to Bennett. Race leader Bagioli and four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome were among the many dropped as the Kiwi led a mere nine riders clear.

As Hanninen was caught and passed, Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos) dropped off the back of the lead group. Nearing the top of the Menthières, Bennett pushed the pace up a little more, this acceleration too much for Conti and Castroviejo, although this pair worked well to get back up to the leaders on the descent.

Although a chase group of five riders comprising Fabio Aru (UAE Emirates), Jan Hirt (CCC Team), Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Jesús Herrada (Cofidis) and Castroviejo got the leaders in their sights, Bennett’s final push kept them at bay and enabled Kruiswijk and Roglic to finish off in style.

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