A Beaten Man
Slovenian Primož Roglič looked every bit the Tour de France champion-elect for 19 days, until he was unceremoniously dethroned on the penultimate stage. Procycling examines how it all went so wrong, so quickly for the race favourite Writer: Barry Ryan PROCYCLING - November 2020 Nothing transfigures a raider like defeat. For three weeks, Primož Roglič had looked a fitting winner of a socially distanced Tour de France. Cautious in his tactics, guarded in his comments and safely shielded by the strongest team in the race, he kept everybody at arm’s length. Then, in the space of 36.2 kilometres of hard road in the Haute-Sadne, all changed utterly. On the Tour’s penultimate day, the detached impregnability of the champion suddenly gave way to the vulnerability of the human. Nothing marked that transition quite like the new helmet that was perched atop Roglic’s head during the fateful final time trial. As he readied himself on the start ramp in Lure, eyes hidden behind a tinted visor, the ...
