Primoz Roglic has gained eight seconds on his rivals in the fourteenth stage of the Tour de France. Steven Kruijswijk lost a few seconds in the last kilometres on the group with favourites. He finished 22 seconds behind Roglic, who ended 29th after a big breakaway.

The Slovenian rider of Team LottoNL-Jumbo escaped on the hard climb and stayed in front. After Dumoulin attacked, Kruijswijk had to pass. At that moment, the breakaway had already crossed the finish line eighteen minutes earlier. 

Roglic was happy he gained some time. “Every second counts. It’s always better to win eight seconds than to lose eight seconds.” He’s now fourth at 2.38 minutes from leader Geraint Thomas. “I want to end as high as possible. That’s why I have to fight for every second.”

It was the first time Roglic climbed the Côte de la Croixe Neuve. “I saw that nobody was attacking. I thought: maybe the other riders are too tired to attack. But it doesn’t make a big difference if you’re riding in front or in the group. It’s a tough effort for everyone.”

Kruijswijk looked back at a tough climb. “I had to pass on the last part. I knew beforehand that it was going to hurt a lot for ten minutes. Especially after this relatively easy day on pretty difficult roads”, the number seven in the general classification said. “Primoz attacked first. When Dumoulin also attacked, I couldn’t follow him. Now we have to see what will happen next week.”

On Sunday, there’s another hard stage coming. After the top of the final climb, it’s forty kilometres to the finish line.