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Roglič produced one of the rides of his life to conquer the Monte Lussari stage 20 mountain time trial at the 2023 Giro d’Italia and move into the race lead with only the formality of the final stage in Rome remaining.
Entering the stage, there was an eerie resemblance to Stage 20 of the Tour de France. A similar course with a flat section ahead of a big climb, necessitating a bike change at the bottom. Roglič entered that stage with a 57-second lead only to run into Tadej Pogacar who produced one of the best rides ever to win the stage by a minute and 21 seconds, also putting an extra 35 into Roglič to put the jersey decisively on the young Slovenian’s shoulders.
Roglič wasn’t bad that day, he was fifth on the stage, but the devastation post-race was clear to see and it was obviously a hugely emotional point in his career.
It was a different story on the summit finish to Monte Lussari, however, in front of hordes of Slovenian fans who packed the mountainside and had flags waving for their hero.
“I didn’t really care about the final result, when I knew the crowds that would be up here, on my turf, I had goosebumps. I wanted to come here and enjoy every metre. It worked, it was enough,” Roglič said after the finish.
“To be a person that people come to support is special. I’m extremely proud to be that person. I’ll definitely remember this day for the rest of my life.”
The Slovenian fans knew something the rest of us didn’t, or at least not for sure, that Roglič was going to make up the 26-second deficit to Geraint Thomas and take out his fourth Grand Tour victory.
Even a mechanical on the final climb couldn’t stop him, as he inexorably pushed out his lead over Thomas in the final kilometres of the climb, taking the stage win by 40 seconds and pushing the battling Briton into second on the stage and general classification.
Overcoming crashes and illness, Roglič rarely looked his dynamic self in this Giro d’Italia until the depths of the final week of competition. When he was unable to follow on Stage 16, many were writing him off, but he had in fact kept himself remarkably close for a ‘bad day’, losing just 25 seconds on the line to his rivals for the pink jersey.
That turned out to be almost exactly the same gap for Roglič to bridge in the final major test, one that the 33-year-old passed with flying colours.
Roglič has three Vuelta a Espana victories to his name already, to go with 70 other wins over his career, but clearly this Giro one was special for him.
“It’s unfair to compare victories, say which is more or less. But this says who I am, I always have hope and fight on. That’s the story of my Giro.”
Where there is a winner, there is a loser, and Thomas was gallant in defeat, admitting Roglič’s superiority on the day but recognising the importance of his performance at the same time.
“I’m pretty gutted,” Thomas said. “If I’d been told this in February or March, I probably would have bitten your hand off, but now I’m devastated, so… I think once it sinks in, I can be proud of what we did. It is what it is.”
“I felt OK, but with about a kilometre and a half to go, I could just feel the legs going a bit. Primož just did an incredible ride. If anything, it’s better to lose by that much than by a couple of seconds, because then you can pick apart and say I might have done this or that.
“At the end of the day, I couldn’t have gone 14 seconds quicker – and he had a mechanical, too. He deserves it, and I have to be happy with second.”
Thomas had been in poor form in early 2023, with little sign that the 2022 Tour de France podium-getter could return to the condition that had seen him battle to the podium behind a transcendent Pogacar and Vingegaard at that Tour.
There were good signs at the Tour of the Alps, and once at the Giro, every major test was met with consistent, dogged determination and even a few sharp attacks to put his rivals in jeopardy.
"The season I’ve had, I didn’t really start racing until Catalunya in March… I stayed strong mentally and put the work in," Thomas said. "I tried to do what I had to do, and I came here in good shape. To come second, I can still be proud of that. But at the moment, it just hurts.”
Thomas’ team was crumbling around him as they were hit by COVID-19 and injury, you would have thought that having Tao Geoghegan Hart as a co-leader in that final week could have given INEOS Grenadiers the edge to win it all. However, Thomas nearly did it anyway, the 37-year-old maybe with one of his last chances to take out a Grand Tour title.
"I'm getting too old for this s**t," Thomas said in a video released on the INEOS Grenadiers social media accounts. "It's been an emotional three weeks."
The Giro d’Italia 2023 concludes with a shorter 126-kilometre stage around Rome, a later start and finish for the final stage, with the race broadcast starting at 11:05pm (AEST) and presentations expected to conclude at 3:25am (AEST).
