A BEATEN MAN
Nothing transfigures a rider like defeat. For three weeks, Primož Roglic had looked a fitting winner of a socially-distanced Tour de France. Cautious in his tactics, guarded in his comments and safely shielded by the strongest team in the race, he kept everybody at arm’s length. Then, in the space of 36.2 kilometres of hard road in the Haute-Saône, all changed utterly. On the Tour’s penultimate day, the detached impregnability of the champion suddenly gave way to the vulnerability of the human.
Nothing marked that transition quite like the new helmet that was perched atop Roglic’s head during the fateful final time trial. As he readied himself on the start ramp in Lure, eyes hidden behind a tinted visor, the headwear seemed like the latest demonstration of his Jumbo-Visma team’s commitment to eking out the most incremental of advantages.
By the time Roglic reached the upper slopes of La Planche des Belles Filles, the cutting-edge technology had transformed into a flimsy accoutrement, a symbol of futility. The seemingly undersized helmet appeared to be slipping backwards, while the discarded visor exposed an ashen face and a bewildered gaze. In a race that hitherto had been calculated to the second, Roglic was now in the process of conceding almost two minutes to his direct rival.
3rd Roglič led the 2019 Giro d’Italia but faded to finish third
When Laurent Fignon
