(Montesanto di Lussari) Slovenian Primoz Roglic is almost guaranteed to win his first Giro d’Italia after winning the penultimate stage, an uphill individual time trial, despite a chain jump in the final part, Saturday at Monte Lussari.
On the eve of the arrival in Rome and a final stage promised to the sprinters, the Jumbo-Visma rider stripped Briton Geraint Thomas of his pink jersey, who broke down in the last kilometer of the terrible final climb.
Despite a chain jump approaching the finish, Roglic, unleashed in front of many Slovenian supporters who came as neighbors, won the time trial with 40 seconds ahead of Thomas.
Then followed the Portuguese Joao Almeida, the Italian Damiano Caruso and the Frenchman Thibaut Pinot.
These five men occupy, in the same order, the first places in the general classification where Roglic is now ahead of Thomas by 14 seconds, one of the smallest gaps in the history of the Giro.
Barring an accident or improbable twist in a last stage which will be a parade in the streets of Rome, we are therefore moving towards a first victory for the Slovenian in the Tour of Italy in which he took third place in 2019.
At 33, it would be the fourth victory in a Grand Tour for Roglic, three-time winner of the Vuelta.
It is a brilliant revenge for the former ski jumper, often cursed in the past. He had notably lost the Tour de France 2020 in a similar uphill time during the penultimate stage, at the Planche des Belles Filles.
While he had been wearing the yellow jersey for 11 days, Roglic had ended up in perdition, crooked helmet and pale face, and knocked down by his compatriot Tadej Pogacar.
On Saturday, he evacuated the trauma in an even more difficult, insane even climb, on a mule track just paved and terribly steep, with a slope of 7.3 km at 12.1% on average.