There are shades of celeste on the first pink jersey of 2019 Giro d’Italia. Team Jumbo Visma’s Primoz Roglic dominated the opening ITT of the 102th edition, starting in downtown Bologna and ending at the famous San Luca Sanctuary (8 km) on Saturday, May 11th.
The Slovenian delivered a dominating performance both on the flat and the final mountain stretches, clocking a 12:54 time, 19 seconds faster than than Simon Yates and 23 than Vincenzo Nibali, two of Roglic’s main rivals for the Giro d’Italia overall crown.
Roglic’s success also meant Bianchi’s return in the Giro d’Italia lead with Team Jumbo-Visma, slightly less than three years after Steven Kruijswijk’s “pink dream”: the Dutchman led 2016 Giro d’Italia from 14th to 18th stage, before an unfortunate crash down the Col dell’Agnello disrupted a possible overall triumph.
Roglic
“I went close to win the opening stage 3 years ago in Apeldoorn and now I finally can wear the pink jersey. We worked so hard for this, and now we get to enjoy this result.”
