Cycling is such a beautiful sport but also such a cruel sport
Its quite possible that Roglic has won his last Grand Tour
Yea, but tbf he still won three and he started late. He's done really well for himself during his spell at the top and made up for lost time big-time. While some prospects are can't-miss, many aren't, and a lot can change in a short space of time, late starters come out of nowhere and stars fade. I mean, people were talking about the riders they think will be at the forefront of GTs for the next decade a few days ago, including the likes of Vingegaard, Pog and Remco... but before his injury, not including Bernal in that would have seemed unthinkable. His case was just bad luck. And yet... how many people would have thought at the 1997 Tour that Jan Ullrich would never win the Tour again and would only win one more Grand Tour? How many people would have thought at the end of 2004 that Damiano Cunego would never even realistically threaten to podium again? After the 2005 Giro, who'd have thought that less than four years later Rujano would be back in Venezuela with his tail between his legs and nobody at the pro level willing to offer him a contract?
Hell, how many people would have thought at the 2002 Giro that it would have taken Cadel Evans another nine years to win a Grand Tour? How many, after watching the 2003 Vuelta, would have imagined that nineteen years later, that fresh-faced kid from Murcia on the podium would still be one of the elites of world cycling, but only won one Grand Tour in two whole decades at the top?
...and how many people at the 2008 Giro, if told that, besides Contador, three other riders on that startlist would go on to win the Tour de France, would have picked out the 28-year-old who finished 173rd, 126th, 141st, 99th, 140th and 135th in the main mountain stages as one of them?
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