Seven riders broke away from the peloton and rode in the lead for almost the entire day. Even before the hectic final began, all the escapees were caught by the peloton. It was Richard Carapaz who opened the attacks, after which Roglic and his rival Pogacar could no longer hide. The two Slovenians were in the lead for most of the steep climb, which had peaks with a gradient of about 20 percent.

Roglic was satisfied with his performance. “It’s a shame I didn’t win in the end, but I’m happy with my form. The final climb was very hard and intense. At 500 metres from the finish it came to a halt and some riders came back as a result. Then Tadej was just a little bit better in the sprint and he deserved this victory.”

“I’m happy that I’m doing well and that I’m still in the lead. I have to be vigilant for any attacks in the coming days. We have to look at it day by day. The big goal is to win this race. In the end, it doesn’t matter to me if I win with one second or with a five minute difference”, the classification leader concluded.