Wiggins podcast: 'Roglic is too hot to win the Giro - Yates is right in there'
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Updated 13/05/2019 at 07:42 GMT
Primoz Roglic has come into the Giro d’Italia “too hot”, leaving Simon Yates as the GC favourite, according to Simon Gerrans on the latest episode of The Bradley Wiggins Show.
Primoz Roglic of Slovenia and Team Jumbo - Visma Pink Leader Jersey / Simon Yates
Image credit: Getty Images
Roglic claimed the Maglia Rosa on Stage 1 with a stunning time trial performance in Bologna on Saturday, with the Slovenian the only man to come in under 13 minutes after the climb to the Basilica San Luca.
The Jumbo-Visma rider will wear pink again on Monday after a trouble-free Stage 2, and his sensational early-season form, with GC wins in the UAE Tour, Tirreno-Adriatico and the Tour de Romandie, have him marked out as the early favourite in Italy.
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‘He’s blown the field apart!’ – Roglic crushes time trial
But according to Gerrans, who also won a stage of the Giro up the Basilica San Luca in 2009, Roglic is unlikely to be able to sustain his current condition, opening the door to the man who currently sits second in GC: Britain’s Simon Yates.
On the latest episode of The Bradley Wiggins Show, available on all major podcast platforms this Monday morning, Gerrans said of Roglic: “You look at his season to date, you look at the form he has showed at the Tour of Romandie and then you look at how much he dominated the first stage by, I think his condition is too good to maintain for three weeks.
“Particularly with such a back-end heavy race that the Giro is every year. I think he is definitely too hot on condition and I don't think he has the support in the team when it comes to the mountains that you require in the back end of the race. Even after watching [Sunday's] stage I'm changing my mind all the time, but I'm going to go with Simon Yates now.”
Yates was only 19 seconds off the pace set by Roglic in the opening stage as he took second spot behind his rival.
Winner of the Vuelta last year, the Mitchelton-Scott rider is out to make amends for his dramatic collapse at the end of last year’s Giro, when he capitulated in the face of a sensational attack from eventual winner Chris Froome.
But Yates appears in confident form at the 2019 race, using a pre-Giro press conference to ruffle a few feathers by declaring that his rivals should be “s******g themselves.”
Yates was Wiggins’ pick to win the Giro and he has been impressed by how he has carried himself so far in Italy.
“There's something about his demeanour this year that is different to last year even,” said Wiggins. “Even the comment he made in the press conference is so unlike him.
“He backed it up the day after in that prologue, he finished second. And he is right in there. He has beaten Nibali and all these guys.”
Wiggins and Gerrans were joined by Eurosport’s new lead cycling presenter Orla Chennaoui for the first of four Giro episodes of The Bradley Wiggins Show podcast.
Listen to the full podcast for more on:
- How Pascal Ackermann outfoxed Elia Viviani and his sprint rivals to claim Stage 2
- Why cyclists aren’t like boxers and can’t trash talk
- Dave Brailsford’s man-management skills and Tao Geoghagan Hart’s chances
- Why pro cycling is so brutal, and reflections on the Marcel Kittel news
- A meeting with Ronnie O’Sullivan at a petrol station
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