When he gave up ski jumping to embark on an uncertain and belated cycling career, in which no one really believed, Primoz Roglic thought he was done with his childhood dream. “I had to admit at the age of 22 that I could no longer become an Olympic champion. It was a sad observation ”, confided the Slovenian to the site Velonews in 2020. Roglic then forgot a detail: cycling is also on the Olympic program.
At 31, he erased his disappointments during the last two editions of the Tour de France, by winning, on Wednesday July 28, the Olympic time trial, with a margin of more than a minute over the Dutchman Tom Dumoulin (2e) and Australian Rohan Dennis (3e) at the finish, on the Mont-Fuji racing circuit.
?️ “???? ?’????̂??? ??????, ???? ?’????̂???!” ? Roglic crushes the stopwatch with more than a minute in advance, and he … https://t.co/ZGwQtVyiEM
The usual rider of the Jumbo-Visma team took advantage of a course more tailored for his qualities as a climber-roller than for those of pure rollers, like the Italian Filippo Ganna (5e) or Swiss Stefan Küng (4e) disadvantaged by a total vertical drop of 846 meters. Unhappy, Küng misses the bronze medal by four tenths of a second.
Prior to this time, Roglic’s form was a question mark. Sunday, the Slovenian had dropped the flag very quickly during the online test, unable to follow the acceleration of his compatriot Tadej Pogacar in the terrible climb of the Kagosaka Pass.
But, obviously, the roles were well distributed with the double winner of the Tour, bronze medalist Sunday. Preferred to the latter for this time trial, Roglic had prepared his case well.
An abandonment on the Tour ultimately profitable
It is a constant at home, the former ski jumper always knows how to bounce back after a failure. On the 2020 Tour, we had left it rung and the helmet askew after losing his yellow jersey to Pogacar, on the slope of the Planche-des-Belles-Filles, on the eve of the arrival in Paris. He got back on track very quickly, to win Liège-Bastogne-Liège and a second Tour of Spain at the end of the season.
Because he often falls (a consequence of his late learning to cycle), Primoz Roglic often has to get up. On June 28, he still foolishly set off on the roads of Brittany during the third stage of the Tour. But, in his misfortune, his abandonment on the morning of the ninth stage allowed him to save his strength.
Announced as one of the favorites, Wout Van Aert undoubtedly paid for his debauchery of energy deployed on the Tour, where he sprinted, attacked and climbed, present at the forefront every day. The Belgian finishes 6e.
The French Rémi Cavagna figures even further. After a good start, the “Clermont TGV”, as it is nicknamed, was not the victim of a catenary failure, but rather of a big pump stroke during the second part of the route, to finish at a disappointment 17e square.
In its place during road events and disappointing in mountain biking, French cycling is still waiting for its first medal. Enough to envy Slovenia, with its two champions, for only two million inhabitants.