Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) won the individual time trial on the opening day of Itzulia Basque Country and took the first leader’s jersey in pursuit of his third title at the Spanish stage race.
Roglič stopped the clock at 12 minutes, 34 seconds, to put him in the hot seat for the majority of the afternoon, sprinkled with bizarre weather and rider mishaps. Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) took second in a time of 12:41 and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) was three seconds farther back in third.
When Vine stopped the clock as the 85th rider on the course, he displaced a temporary podium finish for Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), who finished one second behind Skjelmose and took fourth. The 2023 champion Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) completed his ride in 12:49, good for fifth place.
Even with rapid-fire times across a short 10km course, there was time for several calamities. Roglič, who had been among the early wave of the first 20 riders on the course, rocketed around the circuit in good form until the final approach to the line. He veered off the route, briefly, in the direction where support vehicles exit the course inside 100 metres to the finish. Apparently, this was the direction Roglič had taken on all his recon rides.
“It’s great to be here again, and legs, obviously, were good. I felt strong. I did a bit of a mistake at the end, but corrected and luckily it was still enough,” Roglič told Eurosport at the finish from the hot seat.
“The problem is I did too many recons, we always went high [to the right]. Then I realized I should already be at the finish, I missed it [the corner] so I had to turn back and go over the finish line.”
The other notable mishap came from Evenepoel, who crashed on a right-hand bend just a few hundred metres from the start ramp.
"Everything went well until 200 metres but then I went on the ground, so a bit of a silly moment, my own mistake maybe, it was a slippery part of a city, I could also see it on my hands, everything was black from the grease so it's my own fault, my own risks and onto the next,” he said afterwards.
"Of course I was hoping to be a bit ahead today, but my crash was unlucky and this caused me to be a bit behind. But Roglič did a good time trial and he's probably going to win."
This year’s race was the first clash of former Basque Country race overall winners and teammates, Roglič versus and 2023 champ Vingegaard. Also in the all-star cast was World Champion Evenepoel for a Grand Tour trifecta. All would post fast times to keep the time gaps close.
Roglič also scored the top mountain classification points on the single climb, just ahead of Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) and Vine.
How it unfolded
167 riders took the start line for the opening test against the clock on Monday, a notable absence in Irun coming from Ineos colours when Tom Pidcock crashed on a recon of the course and was taken to hospital for evaluation. Most of the riders completed the course in sunny conditions, but an abrupt change to rain, even a little sleet, made the cobbled sections slippery for the final dozen.
The 10km clockwise course included several steep ramps on the circuit plus a 1.7km category 3 ascent with an average of 5.2% gradient at Olaberria. After the crest, a rolling 2km followed and then a long descent to the sharp 10% gradient at the finish line on the town hall square.
Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) was among the early finishers and set a best time at 12:50. Finishing soon after was former champion Roglič, who took the hot seat with a finish 19 seconds faster than the Spaniard. It was an interesting final stretch for Roglič, as he veered off the proper route taking the vehicle diversion path and having the correct course to cross the finish line.
His former teammate and now-nemesis Vingegaard rode two spots behind and crossed the finish in 12:49, having made up some time on the second half of the course.
While USA’s time trial champion Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) attacked the course in 12:57, Lidl-Trek’s Skjelmose had an even stronger ride behind and went five seconds faster than Vingegaard into second place, 10 seconds back of Roglič.
All eyes were on Evenepoel as he went to work. On the second corner of the course just beyond the start ramp, the Belgian hit the deck. He regrouped quickly, but by the intermediate time check was nine seconds down on Roglič. Some road rash on his right thigh was evident on Evenepoel’s leg as he was out of the saddle on the final uphill to the finish, where he stopped the clock 11 seconds back, putting him in third place with 105 riders to go.
Roglič’s time remained unthreatened until the mid-point of the ITT when Vine bolted across the line three seconds better than Skjelmose, bumping Evenepoel off the podium.
One by one, riders attacked the final uphill on a steep street to the centre of Irun but the steep 10% gradient slowed most of the progress and the majority could not break the 13-minute mark.
Just before Pieter Serry (Soudal-QuickStep) went down the start ramp as the final rider, wet weather blew in. Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates), who started a few riders ahead, fell in the same corner as Evenepoel, but this time due to a burst of rain, which was accompanied by sleet and hail. The final 18 riders were most affected by the weather changes.
Hayter was among the final wave of riders who faltered due to the abrupt change in conditions. The Briton was running second at just one second to Roglič at the top of the main climb, but the sudden sleet shower forced him to slow down and he finished 19 seconds off the winning pace in ninth place.
Roglič watched from his solid position in the hot seat as his time remained the best and he confirmed a first stage win of the season.
Vingegaard entered the April undefeated in stage racing this season, having won O Gran Camiño and Tirreno-Adriatico, while Roglič has one stage race under his belt, finishing 10th overall at Paris-Nice. The battle for the overall continues Tuesday on stage 2, as the race enters France for a relentlessly rolling 160km route from Iruan to Kanbo.
Results
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