In the first two weeks of the Tour de France, Primoz Roglic is mainly concerned with wasting as little energy as possible, but on Friday the yellow jersey wearer saw a good opportunity to go on the offensive on the very steep final climb of the thirteenth stage. And that immediately gave him his biggest step to the overall victory so far.
Sepp Kuss thought for a moment that he was in the Tour of Spain, when he struggled upwards at gradients of well over 11 in the last 2 kilometers of the Pas de Peyrol. “It was really steep. But the view from the top was beautiful, so it was worth it”, said the American from Jumbo-Visma with a smile after the finish on the 1,583 meter high pass in the Massif Central.
The last climb of the tough thirteenth Tour stage was not long (5.4 kilometers), but it was very tough and so this final had been circled in red at Jumbo-Visma for some time. “We knew that this arrival had to suit Roglic, because he has a little more power compared to the small Colombian climbers,” said sports director Grischa Niermann. “So we really wanted to try to make a difference in this stage. And if you look at the results, it was the correct guess that this was a Roglic climb.”
Only Tadej Pogacar proved to be as strong as Roglic on the flanks of the extinct volcano Puy Mary. All other classification riders lost time on the classification leader, with Egan Bernal as the main victim. Last year’s Tour winner lost 38 seconds to the two Slovenian top riders in the last 2 kilometers.
“We are not surprised that Bernal lost some time,” said Niermann. “We already thought Roglic could ride him here in a handful of seconds, which is an important reason why we wanted to attack. Ultimately, 38 seconds is a lot, we are very happy with that.”
Bernal lost his second place in the standings to Pogacar. The 23-year-old Colombian is now third, 59 seconds behind Roglic. “I felt very good all day, but the others were just stronger than me. Then nothing can be done,” said Bernal. “But I’m not giving up yet.”
‘Pogacar is Roglic’s biggest challenger’
At Jumbo-Visma, they have certainly not written off the leader of INEOS Grenadiers. “Bernal won the Tour last year with two very nice attacks in the Alps and there are now three super tough days ahead in the Alps. So we are far from there,” said Niermann.
Nevertheless, the primary focus of the Dutch team is gradually shifting more and more to Pogacar, who concedes 44 seconds to Roglic in the standings. “He is currently Primoz’s strongest challenger, absolutely”, said Tom Dumoulin. And Kuss: “Pogacar was very strong again on Friday, so we keep a very close eye on him.”
Roglic himself typically dismissed a question about who his greatest rival is. “I have no need to worry about names and who is better. I only focus on myself,” said last year’s Vuelta winner.
That reaction only seamlessly fits into the meticulously mapped out plan of the yellow jersey wearer, who knows exactly what he is doing and above all knows what not to waste energy on. “Primoz is very aware that there are still several tough days ahead,” said Kuss. “He knows very well when he has one move can make and when to conserve his strength. Ha, I don’t know if Primoz has already gone all-in once this Tour. “
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