Home favourite Roglic rockets to European time trial glory in Slovenia

Primož Roglič (Slovenia) powered to victory in the Elite Men’s time trial event at the European Championships in Šenčur ahead of Bruno Armirail (France) and Maxime Decomble (France).

In the absence of defending champion Remco Evenepoel, the fight for the European stripes was wide open, and Roglič seized the opportunity in front of his home fans across the 22.1km course.

He stormed into an early lead at the first intermediate split atop the Možjanca climb with a 12-second lead over Armirail, while the powerhouse specialists including Stefan Küng (Switzerland) and Jakob Söderqvist (Sweden) were over 30 seconds behind. 

Roglič maintained his advantage over the remaining 14km and in the end his margin of victory over the 22.1km course proved to be 6 seconds ahead of Armirail in second, while Decomble was third at 28 seconds.

The 36-year-old adds the European time trial crown to his Olympic gold medal from Tokyo in 2021 and his national championship triumphs in 2016 and earlier this season.

The first intermediate split came after 8km of racing at the top of the Možjanca climb, giving the stronger climbers the opportunity to try and steal an early march. 

It was Roglič who capitalised, posting a time of 13:10 to take an early lead of 12 seconds ahead of Armirail, with Ilan Van Wilder (Belgium) in third at 15 seconds. 

The powerhouse time trial specialists Küng and Söderqvist sat 30 and 34 seconds behind the Slovenian in ninth and 11th, respectively, leaving them with plenty of time to make up. 

Through the second checkpoint after 16.3km, Roglič continued to lead, but his advantage narrowed to nine seconds over Armirail. Decomble sat in third at 22 seconds, while Küng had risen to fourth at 30 seconds from Roglič, meaning the European title was likely to be decided between the Slovenian and Armirail.