The China Mail - Tour de France 'nearly man' Roglic finds peace in defeat

Tadej Pogacar stunned the cycling world with a dark horse run to the 2020 Tour title by overhauling Roglic on the penultimate stage.

Since then Roglic has won the Vuelta a Espana a further three times and the Giro d'Italia once, but the big one, the Tour de France, has continued to elude him.

Now 35 and riding for Red Bull, Roglic appeared almost nonchalant as he spoke at the Lille Opera house.

"Of course I have some unfinished business here, but I'm 35-years-old now and I'm happy and proud to just be part of the biggest event in cycling," he said.

"I know what I did and didn't get, and I don't care so much."

Roglic said he had nothing to prove to anyone and that his aim was to finish this Tour, get to Paris and drink some champagne there.

"It's not what happens to you in life, if something goes wrong or whatever. You don't learn anything when you are winning you know, I can't remember my wins."

Conversely Roglic said he had found himself in defeat.

"Bad things sharpen you, without them you don't even know what a good thing is," he explained.

Asked if it hurt to see Pogacar doing so well, Roglic didn't hesitate.

"Pogacar is great but in my story I'm the main actor," he said. "And it's great to still be here with the young guys."

The former ski jumper even joked about the weather, saying he was missing his winter sports.

In the twilight of his career, Roglic was not giving up however.

"Every Tour I race gets me closer to the last one. And you don't need me to tell you how good Tadej, Jonas (Vingegaard) and Remco (Evenepoel) are.

"But we all start from zero, we all fight from here."

After starts in Florence, Bilbao and Copenhagen, cycling's most prestigious race returns to its roots with an old school itinerary starting in northern French city Lille on Saturday.

The first week is set up nicely for any number of aggressive, hotly contested battles for the overall leader's yellow jersey, to be played out in front of roadside crowds expected to tip into the hundreds of thousands.

The volcanoes of the Puy de Dome present the first mountains as late as stage 10, with two more colossal climb days in the Pyrenees before the blockbuster final week in the Alps.

S.Davis--ThChM