Richard Plugge: "Roglic is the epitome of our team: resilience, a hard head and keep going"

Jumbo-Visma had far from their best team present at the Giro d'Italia, but all pieces came together. The Dutch team was able to support Primoz Roglic well in the mountains, and the Slovenian had the legs to soar into a maiden Giro d'Italia win on the final time-trial.

“It all comes together. We have shown so much resilience. From the beginning, from before the race. We started with half a new team due to corona and all those things beforehand," team manager Richard Plugge told Eurosport. "If you see what happens along the way… Roglic is the epitome of our team: resilience, a hard head and keep going. That suits me, that suits the team and that suits Primoz. He is the personification of that.”

The Dutch team had several Covid-19 cases hamper the support to Roglic, and he himself suffered a few crashes during the race - even requiring stitches at some point. His form grew throughout the race however with a clear intention of moving in the final week. His preparation didn't include any racing and he had a modest start to the race, but attacked Val di Zolo and Tre Cime di Lavaredo, before an emotional victory at Monte Lussari among a heap of Slovenian fans.

There he had his chain fall, in a tremendously dramatic moment which cost him crucial time. “I first broke a coffee table in half," Plugge described, before the 33-year old picked his pace back up and overturned the lead of Geraint Thomas. "After that I was very happy again. It's what I say: he keeps going, we keep going. It is fantastic that it all comes together like this.”