schema:articleBody
| - Slovenian Primoz Roglic took the lead of the Tour of the Basque Country after winning Monday's 13.9km individual time trial around Bilbao, but will face stiff competition over the next five days. Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar and new Ineos rider and winner of the recent Tour of Catalonia, Adam Yates, lurk just 28 seconds down in the tricky six-stage Tour. Roglic timed 17 minutes 15 seconds, beating the American Brandon McNulty of Team UAE by just 2secs. Roglic suffered a double crash on the last day of Paris-Nice in mid-March, losing the lead on the last day, as he did on the last Tour de France. "It's wonderful to be back," Roglic told reporters. "I'm really happy with my performance today. It's a great day for us. He added: "I would like to have the jersey at the end. We'll see how the race will go and we'll give it everything." Pogacar, who overtook Roglic on the 20th stage of the 2020 Tour de France in one of cycling's greatest ever upsets, sent out a warning however. "In the rankings 28 seconds seperate me from top spot. But in a hard race like this things can change quickly," said Team UAE leader Pogacar. "Anything can happen," he warned. The second stage is a 154.8km run on Tuesday between Zalla and Sestao. It finishes with a steep, narrow 3.1km climb where the first three riders gain times bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds, while two intermediate sprints also have time bonuses. ta/dmc/lp
|