Primoz Roglic decided in the 2019 Giro that he only had to dedicate himself to controlling Vincenzo Nibali.

He lost it.

In the 2020 Tour, he was only supposed to keep

Tadej Pogacar

at bay

.

He also lost it.

In the 2020 Vuelta, which with a minimal advantage over Richard Carapaz was enough for him.

Only the voluntary or involuntary help of Movistar allowed him to preserve the victory by a sigh.

Now, in the Itzulia of 2021, he decides that he only cares about Tadej Pogacar again.

That the rest of what happens does not matter to him, because he trusts in those

20 seconds of margin that he retains

with respect to his young compatriot and that on the last day, in Arrate, he will be able to recover what he wants against whoever there is born in Slovenia.

And he does not even care to give up the yellow to Brandon McNulty, who apart from being the best gregarious in Pogacar is a cyclist with the capacity to keep the 23 seconds of advantage that he now, as the new leader, has over Roglic.

And in the middle of that troubled river, the one who catches the great piece of the day is

Ion Izagirre

, defender of the title after his victory in 2019 and the cancellation of the 2020 edition. The year of his general triumph he did not win any stage, but he did. He is now in Hondarribia, the first of his entire career in Itzulia, although it seems a lie given his great career, which includes partial triumphs in Tour, Giro, Vuelta, Paris-Nice and Romandía.

Second was Pello Bilbao and it is already the third time this week that Guipúzcoa has prevailed over Vizcaya.

Alex Aranburu also succeeded in the second stage over Omar Fraile.

The other was not exactly on a bicycle.

Landa attack

The great difficulty of this Thursday's stage was

the ascent to Erlaitz

, almost four kilometers at a very hard and constant unevenness, always between 9% and 13%.

There, demonstrating his knowledge of the terrain, Mikel Landa attacked, with perseverance but without much impetus, since his point of form looks more to the Giro than to this Itzulia.

McNulty held on to his wheel, discharging his leader Pogacar of responsibility and loading the Jumbo from it, with Vingegaard leading the climb to defend Roglic's yellow.

The best together crowned Erlaitz, already with Landa and McNulty neutralized.

But the attacks, far from ending there, multiplied from then on, in a stretch of false plain with a constant positive slope of around 3-4%.

Bilbao broke the deck and Chaves joined the party

.

Seeing that the cut could be good, Buchmann, Izagirre and again McNulty were also encouraged.

And then came the strangest movement of the stage.

Vingegaard, instead of sticking with Roglic to protect his lead, set out to complete the top six.

Roglic was left alone for a while (Tolhoek came up behind soon), while the others understood nothing.

Was the Slovenian going to give up the yellow jersey?

Seriously?

Well yes.

Education First reacted by putting

Hugh Carthy to shoot

, but the Briton, off the hook in Erlaitz, lacked the strength to reduce an advantage that did not stop growing.

Roglic was doing nothing.

Pogacar, with McNulty ahead, either.

Men like

Alejandro Valverde and James Knox

, seeing the paralysis of the group, tried to look for the comeback alone, but it was already impossible, on flat and favorable terrain for the leading group after completing the descent.

The difference ended up growing until 49 seconds, leaving the excitement for the final sprint of the escapees.

And in it, Izagirre beat his friend Bilbao by just a few millimeters and McNulty was confirmed as the new leader of the general classification, before the passivity of a Roglic who will face the last two stages (this Friday seems transitional) with the need to cut 23 seconds without losing sight of Pogacar, of course.

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