Primoz Roglic, brilliant European time trial gold at home to increase his legend

Is called Primoz Roglic and it is a active cycling legend although the spotlights in recent times do not usually focus on him. But the great ones always appear and in the best scenario, in the European Championship that takes place in his country, Slovenia, the Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe cyclist has proclaimed himself continental time trial champion to show that even though there are difficult seasons, he is still a tremendous cyclist. It has been in a race with Ivan Romeo tenth.

The doors to the medals were opened after the absences of Remco Evenepoel and Filippo Ganna. “Solo” Roglic had won the Slovenian Time Trial Championship this year, although he had just been second in a great Vuelta a España. Good prelude for, shortly after, repeat victory in the fight against the clock in his country, in a 22.1 kilometer time trial starting and finishing in Sencur in which he has achieved a new milestone for his excellent record.

At thirty-six years old, on the verge of thirty-seven, Roglic has achieved his ninety-third victory as a professional. Quality always comes out and the Slovenian, Olympic time trial champion in 2021 and runner-up in the world of the discipline in 2017, already has his hat-trick of major medals in major national team events.

On a course with a hard ramp of a couple of kilometers between six and eight, Roglic set a time of 28:16:06 to surpass the Frenchman Bruno Armirail, silver, by seven seconds, and the Frenchman Maxime Decomble, bronze, by twenty-eight seconds. One of the favorites, the Swiss Stefan Küng, has been left without a medal, fifth, thirty-five seconds behind the winner. Romeo, meanwhile, finished in tenth place, fifty-eight seconds behind. by Roglic.

The first great reference of the time trial was set by the Italian Marco Frigo. He finished in 29:11.97, just when the medal candidates began to fight for the first partial passes. Bruno Armirail and Máxim Decomble took turns beating the reference times at the intermediate points, which allowed this runner-up to place first at the finish line with 28:45.03.

But already then Armirail and Roglic were launched. The Frenchman was placed first at the first reference pointat eight kilometers, with a 13:23 that was three seconds faster than his compatriot; the Slovenian beat his time by no less than thirteen seconds and, at kilometer sixteen, he maintained a distance of nine kilometers on Armirail.

With five kilometers to go, Roglic held on in the final part to also be the fastest at the finish line and take an indisputable victory. With seven seconds of difference over Armirail, he unleashed madness in Slovenia, which celebrated in style the gold of one of its own. Because there are many top-level names in cycling in this country. Primoz Roglic has once again shown that he is one of them.