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Cycling Superstar Primoz Roglic Goes Wrong Way In Time Trial And Still Claims Victory

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Professional cyclists are some of the world’s most elite athletes.

But if recent history is any indication, they’re also prone to some of the most hilarious mental errors you will see in any sport.

That trend nearly continued on Monday, with four-time Grand Tour winner and Tour de France runner-up Primoz Roglic almost falling victim to an all-time blunder.

Roglic is competing in the 2024 Itzulia Basque Country, a one-week race across the Basque region of Northern Spain. Two-time defending Tour de France champion (and former Roglic teammate) Jonas Vingegaard and reigning world time trial champion Remco Evenepoel are also competing in the race.

But it was Roglic, in his first year with new team Bora-Hansgrohe, who landed the first blow in the monumental battle. Roglic won the 10-kilometer opening individual time trial with a time of 12 minutes and 34 seconds. Evenepoel finished fourth 12:45, with Vingegaard a further four seconds back in 12:49.

It was an impressive gap for Roglic considering the relatively short length of the time trial. But his shining victory was almost an embarrassing disaster.

Just before the finish line, Roglic continued straight down a road, while the course instead veered left.

Seconds later, he re-emerged to cross the finish line. In all, the blunder appeared to cost him somewhere around 7-10 seconds.

Primoz Roglic Laughs Off Mistake That Almost Cost Him Time Trial Victory

Thankfully for the 34-year-old Slovenian, he could laugh about it when all was said and done.

“I did, probably, a bit too many recons,” he said of the issue. “And I always went right for the recons. So I went full and I went right but then I realized after ‘no, should be already the finish and probably I missed it.’ So I had to turn back and go over the finish line.”

Roglic’s performance is a stark improvement after a disappointing 10th-place finish in the iconic Paris-Nice one-week race earlier this season.

Now he’ll have five more stages of trying to defend his lead against Vingegaard, Evenepoel and several others through the iconic Basque Country hills.