Itzulia Basque Country stage 1: Primož Roglič dominant in opening time trial

Primož Roglič opened up the 2021 Itzulia Basque Country with a dominant win in a 14km race against the clock.

Posting the fastest time very early in the day as the 10th rider out of the start house, the Slovenian was in the hot seat for several hours before he could take to the podium for the awards presentation.

This is a bounce-back performance after he lead the Paris-Nice for six of seven stages, but crashed several times on the final stage, dropping him to 15th overall.

“It’s wonderful to be back, I’m very happy with my performance today. It’s very good for me. I like to race here. It was a nice challenge, nice curves and steep ramps at the end,” Roglič said.

Roglič won this Spanish race in 2018 — an indicator at the time of his grand tour potential.

🔹@BrandonMcNult is the best young riders of #Itzulia2021 after the race’s first stage.

##UAETeamEmirates #RideTogether pic.twitter.com/V8wUlmn3ja

— @UAE-TeamEmirates (@TeamEmiratesUAE) April 5, 2021

American Brandon McNulty (UAE-Team Emirates) posted a very strong challenge, coming through the first time check five seconds up on Roglič. However, McNulty was not able to hold on to this advantage and finished two seconds back at the finish, scoring second place on the stage.

McNulty’s teammate and proven time trialist Tadej Pogačar also posted a great effort at the mid-course time check, but it too was not enough to dethrone the two-time Vuelta a España winner, fading some 30 seconds vs his Slovenian compatriot in the final 9km.

“Maybe I started too strong, and I never found the right one rhythm. I kept thinking about the last bump — it was making me a little scared — and I lost a few seconds on that,” Pogačar said. “It’s thirty seconds, it is a big gap, but we will try to reduce it as quickly as possible.”

The final kilometer was a very steep uphill slog that posed a challenge to GC riders and time trial specialists alike.

How it happened

Roglič rolled out of the start house more than two hours before the last rider, setting the mark to beat very early in the day, racing at an average speed of 48.22kph

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) was the closest on time to his teammate for most of the day, at 18 seconds back, riding soon after his team captain.

Later in the day, Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers), just off an overall win the Volta a Catalunya, was not able to match the pace and power needed to land on the podium in this time trial.

Yates’ teammate and 2021 Giro d’Italia champ Tao Geoghegan Hart never quite factored into the stage, and only posted the 48th best time, some 68 seconds back of the winner’s mark.

Pogačar, the last rider out of the start, looked to be flying through the technical first 5km, riding a second faster than McNulty, and nearly three seconds faster than the man in the hot seat.

While Pogačar has previously shown his mastery of pacing in the “race of truth,” and famously bested Roglic at last year’s Tour de France in the time trial, taking back nearly two minutes, his pacing was off today, and he visibly struggled in the final, steep uphill kilometer.

“It’s not just us [ed., Roglič and Pogačar] in this race, it’s also other racers. It’s been a good day for us, but we gotta stay concentrated to the end,” Roglič commented about the days to come. “We will give everything, and we will see what it will give.”

What’s to come

The Itzulia  is known to be unrelenting, with each stage hilly or hillier than the previous.

Stage 2 will take riders from Zalla to Sestao (155km), over a route dotted with small bumps and also a second category pass located 15km from the finish line.