Roglic wins Tour de Romandie

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Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) secured final overall victory at the Tour de Romandie after he delivered a dominant display to win the concluding time trial in Geneva. It was the Slovenian’s third stage race victory of the season after triumphs at the UAE Tour and Tirreno-Adriatico, and the win further underscored his credentials ahead of the Giro d’Italia, which gets underway next Saturday.

The last man down the start ramp in Geneva, Roglic racked up his third stage win of the Tour de Romandie with an assured and smooth performance on the 16.8km course, beating European time trial champion Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) by 13 seconds.

Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) delivered a solid display to take 7th on the stage, a performance that sufficed for him to retain second place overall, 49 seconds down on Roglic. Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos) availed of the final time trial to move up to third place overall, though the Welshman, like Rui Costa, never looked like threatening Roglic’s yellow jersey, and was instead put to the pin of his collar to hold off a strong Felix Großschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe).

David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) began the day in third place overall, but the French climber knew that his podium berth was under threat during the final time trial, and so it proved. He battled gamely, however, and did enough to place 5th overall, one place ahead of Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma).

The day – and the week – belonged to Kruijswijk’s teammate Roglic, who maintained his remarkable 100 percent record in stage races this season. Indeed, Roglic’s consistency since making the step up to WorldTour level in 2016 has been striking.

Last year, Roglic won the Tour of the Basque Country, Tour de Romandie and Tour of Slovenia before placing 4th overall at the Tour de France. This time around, he will arrive at the Giro buoyed by a similar hat-trick and set out with his sights set considerably higher.

“I hadn’t raced since Tirreno-Adriatico, I’m very happy,” Roglic said afterwards. “I love this race, I like riding here. I’m ready for the Giro.”

Time trial

The 16.8km time trial around Geneva was a race of two halves, with the course climbing gently to the intermediate check point after 8.2km before descending rapidly to the finish on Quai Gustave-Ador.

Maciej Bodnar (Bora-Hansgrohe) was the day’s early pace-setter, but the leaderboard took on a rather different guise when Filippo Ganna (Team Ineos) hurtled around the course at an average speed in excess of 50kph. The pursuit world champion was barely settled in the hot seat, however, when Campenaerts stopped the clock with a time two seconds quicker than his.

When Tony Martin (Jumbo-Visma) came home 3 seconds down on Campenaerts shortly afterwards, it was evident that the Belgian’s time would endure for most of the afternoon, and it later became apparent that only Roglic himself would be able to mount a real challenge.

Even so, there were some notable performers before the final tranche of starters, including Paddy Bevin (EF Education First), who would take 4th on the stage, and neo-professional Will Barta (CCC), who took 8th on the day.

Although the time gaps were relatively tight atop the GC coming into the stage, Roglic’s quality against the watch meant that the battle for the yellow jersey was largely devoid of suspense. Only Geraint Thomas, who began the day 26 seconds off the pace, was deemed a possible challenger, but come the check point, it was apparent that the Welshman was not going to trouble Roglic.

Roglic cruised to the 8.2km mark some 14 seconds up on Campenaerts and thus more than half a minute up on Thomas, who was instead locked in a battle with Großschartner to claim the third step of the podium. Thomas summoned up the strength to claw back his deficit to Großschartner in the final 5 miles of the course and pipped the Austrian to third place by just one second.

The day belonged to Roglic, however. With overall victory effectively assured by the midway point of the time trial, the Slovenian might have been forgiven had he eased off on the sweep down to the finish, but instead he held his speed and came home to claim a resounding win, 13 seconds clear of Campenaerts.

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Results

Stage points classification

Stage youth classification

Stage team classification

Final general classification

Final points classification

Final mountain classification

Final youth classification

Final team classification