Primož Roglič has said while he did everything he could yesterday on the Tour de France stage 20 TT he simply didn’t have the power he required to hold the race lead.
He
lost the yellow jersey on the eve of Paris and when asked how he would come
back after such a bitter disappointment he said that remained to be seen.
“First of all, still I am at the end (of the Tour) and I can be happy with the result and the racing we showed here. Let’s take positive things out of it,”
he said, struggling to make sense of what had happened.
“It’s true, I didn’t have the best day; today (Tadej Pogačar) was a lot better. He was in a different world to me. He really
deserved his win, congrats.
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"I am disappointed, I’ll cry; I did already. I want it to be a little different but I cannot change it. I just need to go on."
Overall he appeared perplexed at his
time loss after he and his team had ridden so well over the past three weeks.
But he batted away questions as to the
wisdom of using a new aero helmet for the TT though he only tried it for the
first time during the test.
“Obviously it was not such a good idea.
But let’s leave the materials, for now, because if you push more watts you can always
go faster," he said.
The
Jumbo Visma rider went into the 36.2km TT, which included a flat opening section
before La Planche des Belles Filles, in yellow and with
57 seconds in hand over Pogačar (UAE-Team
Emirates).
However, he was beaten by 21-year-old Pogačar
by 1:56 in the test - Pogačar winning
the stage and Roglič finishing in 5th place and looking
throughout like he was struggling.
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The result meant Pogačar took the yellow jersey for the first time on the race and leads Roglič by 59 seconds ahead of today’s finale.
It was
one of the most dramatic days in pro cycling in the modern era and means Pogačar will win the overall, young rider classification and king of
the mountains jersey today.
It is the first time anyone has won three
classifications on one Tour since Eddy Merckx did so in 1969, taking yellow,
green and polka dots.
“For me, I gave everything I had, that
was all. For sure I’m disappointed with the result but on the other hand I can be proud of my second place,” said Roglič, adding he tried not to think of the time he was losing out
on the course.
He admitted
that before the TT his mind had skipped forward to thoughts of winning in
Paris, though that will not happen now.
“I did dream a little before, and of
course it’s bad when you hear the intermediate times that you are going away;
losing and losing,”
he said.
“But I was hoping he would have some hard moments. I was just pushing
myself over the whole parcours.”
“We need to do a big
analysis, about everything, but for the moment I don’t have a clear mind. It’s
hard to think clearly,” he said.
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