Ceyzériat (France) (AFP)
First race and already strong impression of Primoz Roglic and his Jumbo team: the champion of Slovenia blasted the 1st stage of the Tour de l'Ain (center-east) and almost won before being blown away the victory by the young hopeful Italian Andrea Bagioli (Deceunink) in Ceyzériat, Friday.
For his real comeback in the race and three weeks before the Tour de France of which he is one of the favorites, Primoz Roglic broke the peloton, which rather expected a sprint, 1.5 km from the finish.
Officially in Ain to "rediscover racing sensations" and "prepare physically for the Tour", the winner of the 2019 Vuelta tested his opponents Egan Bernal and Geraint Thomas (Ineos) who responded to his acceleration in a slight bump (800 m at 7%)
An attack that surprised Chris Froome, unable to follow and left almost two minutes, and benefited the promising neo-pro Andrea Bagioli (21).
A symbolic success for his Deceuninck team, two days after the terrible crash that left Fabio Jakobsen seriously injured on the Tour of Poland.
"This victory is obviously dedicated to Fabio, we hope he will recover quickly," said the Italian climber who takes the leader's jersey in the general classification.
It took almost nothing for the yellow tunic to return to Roglic, launched in the last hectometers by Tom Dumoulin, back in the race 420 days after his retirement from the Dauphiné due to a left knee injury .
The work of the winner of the Giro-2018 was not enough but the opponents of Team Jumbo + all star + (Roglic, Dumoulin, Kruijswijk ...) have been warned.
"We will talk about + dream team + once we have achieved something, swept + Rogla + at the start on Friday morning. On paper, it seems very strong but we will see what is happening in the race."
His second place and Dumoulin's fourth at the finish on Friday are promising.
© 2020 AFP