01/09/2024

"You see what happens when you forget to say hello" - Kasper Asgreen recalls funny history of why Primoz Roglic lost the 2020 Tour

Kasper Asgreen has a rather light-hearted history with Primoz Roglic from the legendary Tour de France 2020. The Slovenian left everyone in the dust on the way up to massive GC gains on the Puerto de Ancares on Friday. Near the finish line, he rode past Asgreen whom he made recall their Tour story.

The Danish cycling star, Kasper Asgreen, is in the process of writing a book, which will be written by the former cyclist Per Bausager. "In one of our conversations for the upcoming book, Kasper Asgreen talks about an episode from the first stage of the Tour de France in 2020, where he got into a positional battle with Roglic, which made the Slovenian grandmaster go crazy and had shouted obscenities at him," writes Bausager on Facebook.

"To miss out on the victory is a bitter pill to swallow" - Wout van Aert disappointed not to capitalize on full day of work for Visma at La Vuelta

However, the two riders had a chat the next morning at the starting line, with Primoz Roglic greeting with a bone to make it clear that there were no sour faces. They repeated that greeting every single day for the following three weeks except for one day - the infamous time trial up La Planche des Belles Filles, where Roglic surprisingly ended up losing the Tour de France victory to Tadej Pogacar.

"As they drove into Paris the day after Roglic had lost the Tour to Pogacar on the Planche des Belles Filles, Asgreen said to Roglic: 'You see what happens when you forget to say hello'."

On stage 13, Kasper Asgreen joined the large breakaway, but as it became clear he wouldn't paricipate in the battle for stage victory, the Dane had a new mission of assisting his teammate Mikel Landa on his way to the finish line as he was alone, chasing the Slovenian.

"Today, 1.5 km from the finish line, Asgreen was waiting for Landa when Roglic came rushing from behind. Asgreen looked back and saw Roglic stretch his arm out to a bone. Now he damn well shouldn't lose another grand tour by not greeting Asgreen. There was a jolt, and the Slovenian thoroughbred stallion continued his gallop towards the top."