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Roglič beats Vingegaard and Evenepoel in Itzulia Basque Country opening chrono

Slovenian's first win for new team Bora-Hansgrohe

UCI drama: Michal Rogers quits post, Remco Evenopoel pissed about head sock helmet mix-up Photo by: Sirotti
April 1, 2024
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Primož Roglič racked up his first victory with new team Bora-Hansgrohe, beating reigning champion Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel in the Itzulia Basque Country’s opening time trial to seize the first leader’s jersey. Roglič won the title twice in 2018 and 2021, wearing the champion’s Basque beret, or txapela, on the final podium.

The Course

Too long to be a prologue, Monday’s chrono was nevertheless a short one at 10 km. Besides the narrow, cobbled streets of Irun, there was a Cat. 3 climb smack dab in the middle, its crest the intermediate time check.

Tom Pidcock crashed on a reconnaissance mission and didn’t start.

Juan Ayuso was an early roller. He clipped Bello Bilbao’s best intermediate time of 7:14 by seven seconds and then took the race lead with 12:50.

Roglič first cracked Ayuso’s time check marker with 6:55; Vingegaard was 17 seconds slower. Roglič must’ve been in dreamland posting 12:31 to take over the hot seat, but his advantage was only 15 seconds over Vingegaard because he went the wrong way.

Roglic gets back on course to finish.

Having crashed about 20 seconds into his run, Remco was 7:04 at the top of the Cat. 3 climb. His final time of 12:45 put Vingegaard out of the day’s top 3, Mattias Skjelmose in second place one second faster than the Belgian and 13 seconds slower than the Slovenian. Skjelmose, not Vingegaard, ended up being the fastest Dane on Monday.

Jay Vine shuffled the pack, coming in second place only five seconds slower than Roglič. Ethan Hayter was a second slower than Roglič at the intermediate time check, but he had to ride in rain for the latter half.

Tuesday is the first of several hilly to mountainous days with no summit finishes.

2024 Itzulia Basque Country Stage 1

1) Primož Roglič (Slovenia/Bora-Hansgrohe) 12:34
2) Jay Vine (Australia/UAE-Emirates) +0:07
3) Mattias Skjelmose (Denmark/Lidl-Trek) +0:11