Primoz Roglic and Jumbo-Visma lay down Tour de France marker with dominant victory at Tour de l'Ain

John MacLeary
·3 min read
Primoz Roglic and Egan Bernal — Primoz Roglic and Jumbo-Visma lay down Tour de France marker with dominant victory at Tour de l'Ain - GETTY IMAGES
Primoz Roglic and Egan Bernal — Primoz Roglic and Jumbo-Visma lay down Tour de France marker with dominant victory at Tour de l'Ain - GETTY IMAGES

Primoz Roglic won the Tour de l'Ain on Sunday ahead of Egan Bernal and Nairo Quintana who finished second and third respectively.

Roglic's victory came after he completed a near-perfect race, winning two of the three stages along with the general and points classification jerseys.

Though not part of the WorldTour, the Tour de l'Ain's positioning in the revised calendar elevated the race to one of much more importance coming just three weeks out from the Tour de France. Indeed, the stellar line-up at the three-day race featured a number of riders targeting the yellow jersey at the Tour which gets under way in Nice on August 29.

The victory for Roglic and his team-mates, who rode superbly throughout the Tour de l'Ain, will have come as a huge boost to Jumbo-Visma ahead of their much-anticipated showdown with Ineos and defending champion Bernal at the Tour. On both Saturday and Sunday's mountainous stages Jumbo-Visma turned in commanding performances. In contrast, Bernal was left isolated from his team-mates and outnumbered by Jumbo-Visma. Roglic subsequently outsprinted Bernal on two successive days.

Geraint Thomas who was competing in his first race since lockdown restrictions were eased, did little to back up his claim to be handed co-leadership duties with Bernal at the Tour after the Welshman finished over 21mins down on Roglic. Thomas is expected to start at next week's Critérium du Dauphiné, the final tune-up race ahead of the Tour.

Although the failure to win a second-tier race may not hugely upset Ineos, the performance of four-time Tour winner Chris Froome will have raised eyebrows. A week after finishing 37th at La Route d'Occitanie, Froome rolled in 26min 45sec down in 41st place at the Tour de l'Ain.

Speaking to told Dutch broadcaster NOS on Saturday, Trek-Segafredo rider Bauke Mollema said recent performances from Froome would suggest he could no longer be considered a Tour de France contender.

“I don't actually count Froome anymore,” said Mollema who finished sixth at the Tour de l'Ain. “You can see that he is not at the level where you will just win the Tour.”

Meanwhile, Remco Evenepoel won his first WorldTour stage race after Deceuninck-Quick Step team-mate Davide Ballerini won the fifth and final stage at the Tour of Poland in Krakow on Sunday.

Evenepoel who is targeting next weekend's Il Lombardia, the second monument of the season, has won every stage race he has started in 2020 with wins at the Vuelta a San Juan, Tour of the Algarve and Vuelta a Burgos.

“Our team dominated the race and it’s nice to leave Poland, which I really enjoyed, with so many victories,” Evenepoel  said in a team statement. “It’s the morale-boost I needed for Il Lombardia.”