The Slovenian Primoz Roglic kicked off Itzulia 2024 with a stunning performance in the preliminary time trial by 10 km in Irun and taking advantage of his rivals, especially the other two big favourites Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard, whom he surpassed by 11 and 15 secondsrespectively.
Roglic (Bora-hansgrohe), Evenepoel (Soudal Quick Step) and Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a bike), like most important riders in the race, They started the time trial in the first turns to avoid rain if they made it to the end.
So in the first hour of this first stage, almost everything important was said about a technical route at the start, in the ascent of Olaberria (1.7 km at 5.2% gradient), from Tercera, in the middle of the route. (km 4.4) and a short final slope at 10%.
Roglic completed it in 12 minutes and 34 seconds and that he made a mistake in finding the goal in the final period and lost some crucial seconds when repairs need to be made on the road.
Evenepoel also lost a few seconds, in his case falling immediately upon his departureso the worst feeling in this first challenge is Vingegaard, winner in 2023.
Between Slovenian, Belgian and Dane, provisionally first, third and fourth waiting for the end of the stage for several hours, another Dane placed himself, Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), second, 10 seconds in the back. Roglic.
Fifth, 16 seconds behind the Slovenian, was Juan Ayuso (UAE), first good time at the finish line and leader of the Spanish irregular participation, with Pello Bilbao (Bahrain), Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos) and Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick Step), 25, 37 and 55 seconds behind Roglic
Good performance from Colombian Santiago Buitrago, currently eighth, 27 seconds behind leader Bora.
Source: La Verdad
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