British rider Geraint Thomas’ hopes of winning the Giro d’Italia look to have ended in agonising fashion as Primoz Roglic won the penultimate stage.
Roglic won a brutal mountain time trial by 40 seconds from Thomas to take a 14-second lead into Sunday’s final stage.
“I could feel my legs going at about one and a half kilometres from the top,” said 37-year-old Welshman Thomas.
“I guess it’s nice to lose by that much rather than a second or two – at least he smashed me.”
Slovenian Roglic won the 18.6km stage despite having to deal with a mechanical issue.
“It’s just something amazing,” said the 33-year-old. “I dropped the chain. It’s part of it. You don’t want these things to happen but I put the chain back on and restarted.”
Stage 20 between Tarvisio and the top of Monte Lussari in north east Italy took place just a few miles from the border with Roglic’s home country of Slovenia.
And he said his fans provided him with “extra watts” as he finished in 42 minutes 20 seconds.
Roglic’s victory helped ease the memories of when he was the beaten rider in another dramatic Grand Tour time trial.
He went into stage 20 of the 2020 Tour de France with a 57-second advantage over Tadej Pogacar, only for the younger Slovenian to overhaul him with a devastating ride to win the yellow jersey.
The Giro concludes on Sunday with a processional 135km stage around Rome during which, by precedent, the general classification leader will not be challenged for the overall victory.
“One more day to go. I think the lap is quite hard and technical. It’s not over until it is finished but it looks good,” added Roglic.
A generous Thomas said: “To be honest, Primoz deserves that. He had a mechanical as well.
“If you would have told me this back in February or March, I would’ve bitten your hand off but now I’m devastated.
“With the season I’ve had up until now, I can be proud of that. I’m just gutted for the boys as well as they worked so hard.”
Stage 20
1. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Jumbo-Visma) 44 mins 23 secs
2. Geraint Thomas (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +40secs
3. Joao Almeida (Por/UAE Team Emirates) +42secs
4. Damiano Caruso (Ita/Bahrain Victorious) +55secs
5. Thibaut Pinot (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) +59secs
6. Sepp Kuss (US/Jumbo-Visma) +1min 5secs
7. Brandon McNulty (US/UAE Team Emirates) +1min 7secs
8. Thymen Arensman (Ned/Ineos Grenadiers) +1min 18secs
9. Andreas Leknessund (Nor/DSM) +1min 49secs
10. Jay Vine (Aus/UAE Team Emirates) +1min 53secs
General classification after stage 20
1. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Jumbo-Visma) 82hrs 40mins 36secs
2. Geraint Thomas (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +14secs
3. Joao Almeida (Por/UAE Team Emirates) +1min 15secs
4. Damiano Caruso (Ita/Bahrain Victorious) +4mins 40secs
5. Thibaut Pinot (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) +5mins 43secs
6. Thymen Arensman (Ned/Ineos Grenadiers) +6mins 5secs
7. Eddie Dunbar (Ire/Team Jayco AIula) +7mins 30secs
8. Andreas Leknessund (Nor/DSM) +7mins 31secs
9. Lennard Kamna (Ger/Bora-Hansgrohe) +7mins 46secs
10. Laurens de Plus (Bel/Ineos Grenadiers) +9mins 8secs
