After an early breakaway was reeled in in the final, a new leading group got established with all the big names involved. In addition to Roglic, Jonas Vingegaard was also present for Team Jumbo-Visma. On the final climb, Roglic struggled to keep up with the pace. He returned to the chasing group in the final kilometre and was beaten for third place in the sprint by Adam Yates.

Roglic was, therefore, realistic. “I have to be happy with this fourth place. I really gave it my all. I just didn’t have the legs today. If I could, I would certainly have gone with Pogacar when he attacked. It was very hard all day. Of course I would have loved to put this monument on my palmares, but it was not meant to be today.”

Sports director Grischa Niermann concurred. “We really have done everything we could do today. It wasn’t a bad race, but it wasn’t excellent either. Primoz indicated in the final that he didn’t have the best legs anymore. And Jonas had already been dropped before. We always want to win. This often works with a rider like Primoz. But it doesn’t always turn out like that. Bad days are also part of cycling and life. It was a goal for us to win a monument. That did not work out. We will analyse it thoroughly this winter to be able to achieve this in the future.”