Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) had the most power on the short power climb up to Suances, winning stage ten of the Vuelta a Espana and taking the red jersey from Richard Carapaz (Ineos).
On a beautiful sunny day of long Fall shadows, Rogic made the victory look painfully easy. While Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) shattered the peloton with one kilometer to go, it was the Slovenian who ripped past Martin and Zdeněk Štybar in the final 150 meters. He looked like he had an extra gear and a special bonus pack of watts. Coming up from behind, Felix Grossschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Andrea Bagioli (Deceuninck-QuickStep) managed second and third.
“It’s beautiful again. What can I say? I’m super happy. It’s never easy to win but I had the legs, and it’s really, really nice,” said Roglič. “Now I’m one year older and stronger, like a wine – the older the better.”
Older and certainly faster. Roglic not only picked up a ten second time bonus for first place but also pulled out a three second gap over Carapaz who finished just behind with most all the major GC contenders. That 13 second haul gave him the exact same overall time as the Ineos captain and since Roglic had the better stage placings, he finds himself back in the leaders jersey.
“I’m again in red, but it doesn’t really change much for our team,” said Roglič. “We need to keep the momentum and the focus. A weekend in the mountains is coming, so we will do our best.” His Tour de France nemesis Tadej Pogacar is not in the Spanish grand tour so perhaps Roglič’s best will be more than sufficient.
Leave A Comment