Primoz Roglic, riding in his first grand tour, gave LottoNL-Jumbo a stage win today in the Giro d’Italia’s Chianti time trial. The Slovenian went 10 seconds faster than Matthias Brändle (IAM Cycling) over 40.5 kilometres. Team leader Steven Kruijswijk, went just as well, holding his ground to the other overall favourites. He finished 21st and is placed fourth overall, with Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx - Quick Step) in the pink jersey.

Roglic, who finished just 1/100 of a second behind the winner in the opening time trial in Apeldoorn, could not be stopped today. “Awesome,” the Slovenian said. “This victory still comes as a surprise for me, but I was more self-confident after that first stage. I felt strong and knew that I would have a chance if I was able to give everything.

“The Bianchi Aquila time trial bike is obviously very fast and I enjoy riding on it. Besides that, a time trial is a fight against yourself, you have to control yourself. That comes quite close to ski jumping. That didn’t mean that I immediately knew that time trials suited me, but it seems to be so.”

Last descent

“Roglic has a lot of power,” Sports Director Jan Boven added. “We did some tests with him, as well. Besides that, the Bianchi Aquila is a very quick bike. Mathieu Heijboer is paying a lot of attention to the riders’ warm-up, Primoz profited well from that. He made the difference in the second part of today’s time trial. He delivered some steady and quick descents and was very strong on the final climb. During the last descent, he won another eight seconds on his main competitors.”

Perfect

Behind Roglic, Jos van Emden, Maarten Tjallingii, Martijn Keizer and Steven Kruijswijk finished eighth, ninth, 16th and 21^st, respectively. “This is great,” Boven continued. “These are the most beautiful days for a sports director. Steven’s 21st place is very good. He’s still in a very good position and won seconds on the most of his competitors. This day went perfect for us. We’re only the fifth team to win a stage in this Giro and we still finished every day in the top 10.”

On Monday, the riders have a day of rest, but the Giro d’Italia will continue with a tough stage on Tuesday. “We’re going to enjoy a small drink for this victory tonight, but we’re not going to party,” Boven said. “We have a rest day tomorrow, but it’s going to be tough on Tuesday. The favourites don’t have much difference between them so we have to stay focussed.”