Tirreno-Adriatico: Contrasting emotions for Roglic and Dumoulin after steep climbs spark time gaps
Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) and Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) post-stage warm down after stage 4 of Tirreno-Adriatico may have been similar but their sentiments were of stark contrast. The Jumbo-Visma rider was happy to have extended his lead on almost all of his overall rivals, while the Dutchman was clearly disappointed to have lost precious seconds and virtually any chance of overall victory.
Roglic finished a close second behind Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) and ahead of race leader Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), but gained 23 seconds on Dumoulin and the other overall contenders. A six-second time bonus narrowed his deficit on Yates to just seven seconds and he extended his overall lead on Dumoulin to 43 seconds, with only Sunday’s stage in the steep Le Marche hills and then Tuesday’s final 10km time trial in San Benedetto del Tronto opportunities to make time back.
Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) is fourth at a more distant 56 seconds, while Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb) is at the same time, with Lutsenko sixth at 1:06.
Thanks to Jumbo-Visma’s second place in the team time trial, the time Roglic gained in Fossombrone, and the time he is expected to gain in the final time trial, the Slovenian is sitting pretty, with the bonus of Yates and Mitchelton-Scott having the obligations and responsibility that comes with the leader’s blue jersey.
Roglic is not very emotive in front of the media and fans, but his satisfaction was easy to see.
“It was a real race today, all stage. I wanted to win but second place and time gained overall is good,” he said. "There’s still some shit I have to learn about sprinting at the highest level, I still have to learn some things in cycling, but that’s okay. Lutsenko was still the strongest in finish despite his crash."
Only disappointment for Dumoulin
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