Behind Roglic’s feat at the Giro d’Italia there is the push of a fan: what happened – Corriere.it

Inside the tent, a stone’s throw from the sanctuary overlooking the Julian Alps and Slovenia, seven yellow bees buzz around the underweight king, while outside the party is raging. Primoz Roglic from Trbovlje, 170km from here, the man capable of turning the Giro around in recovery time (today in Rome sprint, toast and smiles for the photos with the President of the Republic Mattarella, who will be given a shirt signed by all the riders), he welcomes his companions one by one in his bony arms. it was a great battle fought to the last metre, my luck to have been surrounded by the right people, who kept me positive. a team victory.

They parade Dennis And Kussthe precious lieutenants who kept the Italian captain on the Bondone alive Relatedthe Dutch Bouwman and OomenJumbo the multinational turned out to be stronger than the billionaire Ineos, unable to bring to the foot of the final hill climb Geraint Thomas with enough seconds to manage the crisis. The Welshman collapsed on the last climb (second 40” from Roglic: from a +26″ lead to a 14″ gap in the general classification), while the former ski jumper made up for the chain jump caused by the rebound of the bike in a gutter: I’m not a mechanic but I did it myself – I’ll say in the end -. And thanks to that huge fan who pushed me, helping me to restart. I will be forever grateful to him.

It was to be the Tour of Mr G, the Welsh che pedaled with the elderly dream of becoming the oldest champion in the haversack. Instead, in 44’23” of an unprecedented, participatory and revolutionary stage, which became the race of Roglic, the other Slovenian (between him and the Pogacar phenomenon, since 2019, before the three victories at the Vuelta di Primoz, 6 wins out of 13 grand tour), Lora’s husband (Every cyclist’s family makes sacrifices, we are like everyone else) and Lev’s father (No, I don’t hope that he will make my life when I grow up: I want him healthy and happy), the back number 141 who pedaled with the lights off, crashed twice (There were stages of great pain), gritted his teeth (I’m not in the habit of giving up) and now receives compliments from Thomas (You were better than me) and by Luka Doncic, the Dallas star in the NBA who tweeted first (Bravo!).

Slovenia (17 winning nation) beat Wales ennobling the feat with the success of the most important stage, the lesson of the 2020 Tour (domination of Roglic until his collapse in the time trial of the Planche des Belles Filles and yellow jersey sold to Pogacar) learned, the 14 seconds that on the eve of the final catwalk separate the winner from Thomas are the fourth minimum gap in history, the narrowest of the last 49 years (Merckx beats Magni by 12” in 1974), and Roglic with his 33 years, 6 months and 29 days becomes the fifth oldest owner. Statistics tell of a masterpiece, but Primoz is not a great speaker, he shakes hands with Nibali, he just smiles, holds back the tears: something happened that he will remember forever. Precious Kuss has the truth in his pocket: No one can plan such a turnaround, you can only trust your captain. Repaid.