The final chapter of the 2020 Tour de France could not have been more brutal for Primoš Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) on Saturday.

Over the past two weeks, Jumbo-Visma has racked up stage wins, defended the yellow jersey, and virtually done it all.

In the last week, Tadej Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates) was the real challenger, but after the Alps, the race seemed virtually settled in Roglic's favor.

While it is true that Pogachar found it difficult to gain more than 57 seconds, before the time trial, Roglic was frequently saying that he was happy with his pre-stage time difference with his young compatriot.

However, everything changed during the 36km time trial. As teammates Wout Van Aert and Tom Dumoulin looked stunned on the giant TV screen at the finish, the clock ticked down and the yellow jersey slipped from Roglic's hands. Their boat was sinking, and there was nothing they could do about it.

About 270 meters from the finish, Roglic was sweating and looked completely out of shape.

As he crossed the finish line in fifth place, 1:56 behind, Roglic could do nothing but slump to the side of the barrier in exhaustion as his young Slovenian rival drove the yellow jersey from his shoulders. Comforted by Tom Dumoulin, he made a sportsmanlike gesture by going to Pogachar and giving him a congratulatory hug. But the yellow jersey was no longer his.

Such a final-day loss was so rare that comparisons were immediately drawn between Laurent Fignon and Greg Lemon in 1989. But this was a particularly cruel defeat at the end of a stage that had held the jersey for two weeks and in which Roglic was widely expected to win, or at least finish strongly.

At a press conference later in the day, Roglic was calm and collected in his reception, but also dignified in defeat.

"I'm disappointed, I'll cry, I already cried. But that was the reality. But you can't change it. Taddei is a world apart from me and he definitely deserves to win."

"I gave it everything I had. I'm disappointed with the result, but I'm still proud of second place and that's all that matters."

In fact, well before the first time trial checkpoint, Roglic was already in trouble.

There was speculation that Roglic was going to be in it for the long haul, waiting for the final climb to turn the tables on his younger and perhaps more impatient rivals. Instead, however, the gap kept growing, and after a somewhat erratic and late bike change on the hill of Planche des Belles Fils, it all ended with a shout.

"Obviously I didn't push hard enough. That's how it felt. I didn't have the power I needed. I was giving it my all until the end," Roglic said.

When asked about the new helmet he used for the first time on Saturday, he said, "Obviously, it wasn't a very good idea. I could always go faster if I increased the wattage. 0]

However, Roglic reiterated that it was difficult to analyze at high speed the tools that had suddenly turned the tables on him, despite the fact that the tide had been so far in his favor. He said he never expected his time trial to turn out so disappointingly.

"I didn't expect to have a bad day, and if you listen to the intermediate times, of course they are better. But I was expecting Taddeji to give me a hard time, so I was pushing and believing in myself throughout the whole parcours. In the end, it was very close," he recalled.

He was asked if he regretted not being more aggressive earlier in the Tour. He said, "Everything needs to be analyzed, but at the moment it's hard to think clearly. But on the other hand, second place is still better than third."

This result is very painful, not only for Roglic himself, but also for his teammates, who have given the Slovenian a lot of support and dominated the uphill part of the race. It also means that the Dutch team has gone 40 years without a win in the Tour de France since Rory in 1980.

"I'm sorry to everyone because it wasn't intentional. 'I was fighting every day to give my best. But I'm still really proud of them and proud of all their performances over the last three weeks."

"I have no clear plan, nothing in my head. What's disappointing is not so much the result, but the fact that I gave all my performance. I am grateful to the Slovenian fans on the road.

Before sending him off from the press center to a round of applause, Roglic concluded that the Tour had not yet seen the last of him, but that he would need time to think about how to react after such a dramatic defeat.

"I always want to be better and faster, and I have the motivation. But first I need to rest a little bit and think more clearly about what to do next, what to do," Roglic said.