In a day perfectly managed by his Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe teammates, he beat Belgian Lennert Van Eetvelt in second place in the fight for victory.
“Today was more of a team victory than mine. “Winning today wasn’t really the main goal. Considering how fast the others were pedalling in this heat, I’m happy that I was able to win on this climb,” Roglic told Eurosport.
“It was tough, the slope was really steep. I am also returning, I still have back pain and after several hours of effort I hope it does not get worse.“, added the Slovenian about his physical condition, which made him arrive at this Vuelta as one of the great unknowns.
In the general classification, which began the day led by the Belgian Wout Van Aert, Roglic is now the leader with an eight-second advantage over the Portuguese Joao Almeida, who was third in the stage, with the same time as the winner.
In the group of seven men at the head of the race led by Roglic and who crossed the finish line with the same official time were two Spaniards, Enric Mas and Mikel Landa.
Succession of attacks
Roglic imposed his pace on the leading group thanks in particular to the work of Russian Alexander Vlasov. The 34-year-old Slovenian responded well to the first attack by Frenchman Pavel Sivakov at the start of the climb to Pico Villuercas.
Landa also attacked, but Roglic and Van Eetvelt They caught up with him and were the ones who ended up fighting for victory in an exciting finale.
In the overall standings, the reigning Vuelta a España champion, American Sepp Kuss, is thirteenth, 1 minute and 14 seconds behind Roglic.
At the stage, Kuss was eleventh28 seconds behind the Slovenian, his theoretical main rival for the title.
This Tuesday was the first stage of the Vuelta a España on Spanish soil, starting in Plasencia and arrival at the Villuercas Peakin the Montes de Toledo mountain range, in the province of Cáceres (Extremadura).
The fifth stage of the Vuelta a España will be held on Wednesday, a 170-kilometre route that will take the peloton from Extremadura to Andalusia, from Fuente del Maestre to Seville.
Overall classification
- Primoz Roglic 14 h 33 min 08 s
- Joao Almeida 8 secs ago
- Enric Mas at 32 s
- Antonio Tiberi at 38 s
- Lennert van Eetvelt at 41 s
- Felix Gall a 47 s
- Brandon McNulty a 50 s
- Mattias Skjelmose is 58 years old
- Mikel Landa m.t.
- Aleksandr Vlasov and 1 min 00 s
24. One Rubio a 1 mim 57 s
27. Harold Tejada a 2 min 06 s
37. Nairo Quintana at 3 min 30 s
46. Daniel Martinez at 4 min 36 s