Primoz Roglic became the first of the 'Big 4' contenders to show any signs of weakness at the 2024 Tour de France on stage 2. Whilst Tadej Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard crossed the line side by side, Roglic was forced to give up 21 seconds to his rivals.
Despite the early time loss, Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe retain the faith in the Slovenian, who is looking to finally complete his set of Grand Tour winners jerseys and avenge his Tour de France heartbreak from back at the 2020 edition of the race, where Tadej Pogacar knocked his compatriot out of the Maillot Jaune on the final time-trial in dramatic style.
"It was just full gas cooking out there all day. It was really on and off on the climbs so it was a pretty strange day. Full gas basically both times up San Luca. It was really on the limit," says Roglic's super domestique and former Giro d'Italia winner in his own right, Jai Hindley in the Australian's post-stage interview. "We limited our losses as best as we could and really gave it everything. We’re 48 hours into a three week race. There’s plenty of racing to come. It’s not been too bad. It wasn’t a disaster day."
Roglic himself towed a similar line in his post-stage 2 interview, choosing to remain optimistic and look to the opportunities to come, rather than dwell on this early disappointment. "Obviously I wanted to be with the front guys, but I didn't have the legs today and I have to take it the way it was," the Slovenian reflected after the stage. "I was not on the wheel. That's just a fact that I was way too much behind and yeah, in the end I just couldn't really do anything. We'll take it day by day. It's only the second stage and there is still nineteen days to go huh!"
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