Roglic was sometimes unbeatable at such conclusions. What happened yesterday

Before the start of the fifth stage, many were convinced that the only categorized slope, which even belonged to the fourth category, will not be too big an obstacle not to see the calculation of classic sprinters in the end.

And yet it turned out to be a slope to the winner of the fourth stage, sprinter Casper van udena (Picnic-Postnl) and Olava kooi (Visma-Lease A Bike), which was on this stage just behind him.

The culprits were the riders of the UAE team, the United Arab Emirates, who had wandered a heavy pace before the slope, although they have no one on the team that could compete for the stage victory in the sprint.

However, when we looked better at the fifth stage, we found that the final miles along the only categorized slope would be even heavy. It turned out to be far from a sprint stage but the species that Primož Rogličfor example, a serial win.

Shorter, unclassified slopes ran all the way to the finish line. Also Mads Pedersen (Lidl Trek) showed signs of crisis in the last kilometers. Following the strong acceleration of Primož Roglič and his team of Red Bull-Boat-Hansgrohe, he was slightly behind in the group. In fact, he sink to the tail of the torn bulk, and everything indicated that such a conclusion was too hard.

But the more laid terrain before entering the last kilometer allowed Pedersen to recover and return to the forefront.

Incredible Vacek and even more amazing Pedersen

Together with the Czech Mathiaso Vack they made their way past the Picnic-Pobnl Duo, Romaina Bardeta and Maxa poolajust before the last left turn. Roglic tried the attack. It seemed that in time, although it was far from the finish line, but we know what ease he had already won in such conclusions.

Everything was indicated by Primož’s superiority. Yes, because this is his type of finishing sprint in races. Yet they started catching up and overtaking him. The cyclist who fought the most in the eye when it was the hardest when the race broke into the finish line was Czech Vacek, a 22-year-old phenomenon in the white T-shirt of the best young cyclist.

Vacka simply did not run out, he patched the holes, hunted the attackers, and always looked at where his captain was in Mads Pedersen’s pink T -shirt. It seemed that if Vacek was not an assistant on the Lidl Trek team, he would have received yesterday with one foot, as cyclists call it.

Vacek found out that Pedersen had not yet surrendered, he waited where it was the hardest for Mads, together they joined the head of the attackers and … then the raw power and superiority of Danac happened. We haven’t expected anything similar to see or for a long time. Maybe at the last in the AMSTEL GOLD RACE race by staging the winner Mathieu Van der Poela in 2019.

When Vacek left the end of Pedersen, he sovereignly won his third stage victory at this year’s Gir.

« The last 20 kilometers have been amazing, I really suffered on the last slope, it was extremely difficult and I was not sure I would succeed, » Pedersen said after the stage.

“I knew that despite the backlog across the top of the climb in a small group that was fighting to win. But there I spent a lot of energy from going back to Vack’s wheel. I just had to have to stay in the game to win. And then fortunately, I still had enough power to have the last sprint. Really tiring stage. « 

Pedersen really deserves flowers and champagne at this year’s Gir. Photo: Jennifer Lorenzini/Reuters

“Winning, in this T -shirt, is amazing. Crazy, much more than I have ever imagined. What kind of giro we have and what team I have with! We try to win as much as possible every day. We also attack again tomorrow. « 

With a win and a ten -second time bonus, Pedersen increased its overall advantage to 17 seconds ahead of Roglic, which finished yesterday’s stage in 12th place. Vacek is now the third with 24 seconds behind.

Pedersen also picked up six points on two intermediate sprints and an additional 50 on the finish line, greatly increasing the advantage in the fight for a purple T -shirt (Maglia Ciclamino). It now has 139 points, while Olav Kooij 52 has a before the next sprint day, Thursday, today’s, 227 kilometers long sixth stage to NEAJ.

What happened to Roglic?

The answer here is, « But I must not say everything, » he knew.