Roglic -Nice That I Managed To Win The Whole Thing

Just over two weeks after opening his 2019 season with the overall victory at the UAE Tour, Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo-Visma) became the first Slovenian to win Tirreno-Adriatico NamedSport. He claimed the 54th edition of the Race of the Two Seas with the small margin of only one second over Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott). European Time Trial Champion Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Soudal) won the closing time trial ahead of Italy’s Alberto Bettiol (EF Education First) and Dutchman Jos van Emden (Team Jumbo-Visma).   GENERAL CLASSIFICATION 1 – Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo – Visma) 2 – Adam Yates (Mitchelton – Scott) at 1? 3 – Jakob Fuglsang (Astana Pro Team) at 30?   STAGE RESULT 1 – Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) 10km in 11’23”, average speed 53.235kph 2 – Alberto Bettiol (EF Education First) at 3? 3 – Jos van Emden (Team Jumbo – Visma) at 4?   JERSEYS Maglia Azzurra (blue), general classification leader, sponsored by Gazprom – Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo – Visma) Maglia Arancione (orange), sprinter classification leader, sponsored by Sportful – Mirco Maestri (Bardiani CSF) Maglia Verde (green), King of the Mountains classification leader, sponsored by Enel – Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Pro Team) Maglia Bianca (white), young rider general classification leader, sponsored by Open Fiber – Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb)   PRESS CONFERENCE Overall winner Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo-Visma) said in the press conference: “Tirreno-Adriatico was my big goal of the start of the season. It’s just really nice that I managed to win the whole thing. For sure I was confident at the start that I’d win, but I only managed to control myself, I didn’t know how fast Adam [Yates] would ride. I took 100% out of my body. Luckily it was enough. I wanted to finish as fast as possible. This is a big win for me. The Giro d’Italia will be a different story with big mountains but I’ll come back to Italy very motivated after altitude training.”   Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), second overall, said: “I did the best I could. I said before the race that 25 seconds wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough indeed. But I did a good TT. I’d like to look back but my power was good and I held the position as long as I could. All the way round, the feeling was about the same, just suffering. The course didn’t suit me at all, I knew that. There’s no much more I could do. That’s bike racing. That’s sport at the highest level. But for sure next year I’ll come back and hopefully I can come back stronger and finally win this race overall.”   Jakob Fuglsang (Astana Pro Team), third overall: “After the team time trial we had, it looked very difficult to end up on the final podium. We had to go for stages instead. We finish Tirreno-Adriatico with two stage wins. I’m happy for the result we eventually got. It wasn’t an easy time trial to finish with. It was no fun at all with all the wind out there.”   Points classification winner Mirco Maestri (Bardiani-CSF): “This time I made it. I suffered a lot as I was in the car with [sports director] Roberto [Reverberi] looking at the results and crossing my fingers. It went well this time. Two years ago, I was very close to Peter Sagan who offered me his orange jersey writing on it ‘next time it’ll be yours’. It went that way. I’m happy. I might pay Peter back with my jersey if I manage to catch up with him.”   King of the Mountains Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Pro Team): “It’s been a really nice race. We won two stages, my friend Jakob [Fuglsang] is on the final podium and I get the green jersey. We can be happy with that. Today it was very difficult but it was a short time trial of only 10km. I’m satisfied to be here after crashing on my winning day. After tomorrow I’ll go in the mountains for altitude training before the Ardennes classics.”   Best young rider Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb): “It was really hard. I didn’t do a good TT I think. I didn’t feel good all the way. I’m just happy that I retained the white jersey. I’ve had a nice week of racing at Tirreno-Adriatico and I’ll keep riding my bike with pretty high ambitions.”   Stage 7 winner Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Soudal) said in the press conference: “I think today I was best time trialist of the world because only Michal Kwiatkowski was missing from all the top specialists. Beating the World Champion [Rohan Dennis] and the runner up [Tom Dumoulin] is something big for me after I came third behind them at the World Championship. This victory is also a really big boost, because every victory is a mental boost but I didn’t need that boost for the Hour Record attempt. I just rode five stages on a road bike, it won’t be like that in the Hour Record. It’ll be a different effort and a different target.”   STATISTICS After being the first Slovenian stage winner of the Tour de France (2017’s Stage 17 to Serre-Chevalier, including the Galibier, followed by 2018’s Stage 19 to Laruns, which included the Tourmalet), Primoz Roglic is the first Slovenian to win a stage and the overall classification of Tirreno-Adriatico. He was born in Yugoslavia in 1989 before Slovenia became an independent country on 25 June 1991. Riders from 13 different nations have now won The Race of the Two Seas. 31 hundredths of a second isn’t the tightest gap between first and second in the final ranking of Tirreno-Adriatico. In 2001, the time gap between Davide Rebellin and Gabriele Colombo was 27 hundredths of a second. The last Belgian to win a time trial at Tirreno-Adriatico before Victor Campenaerts was Roger de Vlaeminck in 1976, also in San Benedetto del Tronto. De Vlaeminck is the all time record holder of overall victories with six!       .read full article

Source: Kev Monks

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