"I have had to make many sacrifices" - Primoz Roglic emotional after comeback victory at Tirreno-Adriatico

Primoz Roglic was not planning to be at Tirreno-Adriatico. In the matter of less than a week he managed to end all questions as he soared to a win on the Italian race's first hilly stage.

“Our plan was to go for a good result. I was not the first plan. We were going to go for Wout, but he was unlucky," Roglic said in a post-race interview. The Slovenian was present in the GC group at all times at Jumbo-Visma controlled the many attacks that took place over the final laps of the stage around Tortoreto.

Teammate Wout van Aert crashed right before the final climb and that led to a change in plans for the Dutch team. "I was lucky that I was just a bit more to the left and was able to avoid the fall. We had to adjust the plan quickly and go for it at the end," he explained. A reduced group sprint was hard to avoid and Roglic had his best legs, resisting the late attacks of Hugh Carthy and Adam Yates, and sprinting to victory at the top of the climb - his first win since last year's Vuelta a Espana.

“It is always nice to win. It's fantastic to see how I've recovered. We've worked hard. I have had to make many sacrifices, along with my family and all the people around me," he concluded. After a difficult winter with several months off the bike and a complicated operation, this victory comes as evidence that he has put in the work right in recent months and his performance has not suffered due to the break.