I’m not sure how this proves Remco was the strongest. After all, you don’t know what Roglic could have done had he ridden with Remco’s lack of restraint. As it stands, he rode a measured race and won. Sure, LanterneRouge chose to represent La Port on their map as Evenepoel’s superior performance, bizarre given that Roglic won several seconds clear, but you also have to ask yourself: Was Roglic maxed out there? He sure looked cool as a cucumber hitting his Garmin stop button as Remco died a thousand deaths behind him. Seems like you’re giving Remco all the credit for hypotheticals but none to Roglic…you’re framing it as if this was Talansky stealing a Dauphine from a far superior Contador. This is far from that.
Exactly, Roglic rarely gives his all without the guarantee of gaining significant time on a rival when the race is very close (last year's Volta a Catalunya is the exception, and I think that's because he was frustrated with the intermediate sprints).
And that was clearly seen at Lo Port. In my opinion, he was quite fresh in the last kilometer or so, and if he had gone all out without any tricks, he could have gained at least 10 more seconds, but he overestimated Remco's strength. Also, in the last two laps of Montjuïc, he was, in my opinion, fresher than Remco, and it wouldn't have been impossible to drop him at the summit or in the descent, but there he had no need to do that after the Belgian's effort.
However, if I give Bernie credit for Remco being stronger both at La Molina (obviously) and slightly at Vallter, and on the day Remco attacked on a short climb, I know his body language too well, and Primoz was on the limit, unlike in the other stages I mentioned above. The sprint of the first stage is dubious, because I remember some comentators mentioning a headwind and Roglic was in top 2 places for the entire 600m climb while Remco made a brutal comeback but was very well protected in the slipstream, in fact in the last 50 meters he didn't gain anything.
So they were evenly matched in strength but overall Primoz was better, wich is the importan thing.
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