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Slovenian Primoz Roglic, a former ski jumper, finished ahead of Tour de France leader Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome in Saturday’s Stage 14, moving eight seconds closer to a possible podium in Paris in eight days, reports NBC Sports.
28-year-old Roglic won a junior world title in ski jumping in the team event in 2007 before switching to cycling. Yesterday he finished eight seconds ahead of Thomas, Froome and Tom Dumoulin, the top three in the Tour standings. Roglic won a stage in his Tour debut in 2017 and finished 38th overall, then took time trial silver at the world championships.
This season, Roglic won the Tour de Romandie and the Tour of the Basque Country. Now, he’s eyeing Slovenia’s best overall finish in Tour history. Right now, that distinction is shared by Tadej Valjavec and Jani Brajkovic, who were ninth in 2008 and 2012.
The Tour de France was founded in 1903 and is one of the most challenging races in professional cycling. The mountain stages, going through the Alps and Pyrenees, often provide some of the more dramatic moments, and over the years riders have gone through various ski-resorts.
La Mongie, France provides one of the tours toughest climbs, with the riders even going under one of the resort’s chairlifts.
