Slovenian cycling star Primož Roglič started the Tour of the Basque Country with a victory in the time trial on 1 April, his first for Bora-Hansgrohe, as he eyes his third title at the Spanish stage race.

Roglič was seven seconds faster than Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) and finished ten seconds ahead of Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek).

His main rivals for in general classification kept the gap narrow. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) was 11 seconds behind while the 2023 champion Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) completed his ride in 12:49, good for fifth place.

The 34-year-old Slovenian won despite veering off the route, briefly, in the direction where support vehicles exit the course inside 100 metres to the finish. This cost him a few seconds.

"It's great to be here again, and legs, obviously, were good. I felt strong. I did a bit of a mistake at the end, but corrected it and luckily it was still enough," Roglič told Eurosport at the finish.

He told the organisers it would be nice to keep the leader's jersey until the end "but there's a long way to go yet".

This is Roglič's first victory for Bora-Hansgrohe, which he joined last autumn after leaving the Dutch giant Jumbo-Visma after eight years, and his 81st in total.

It is his 18th time trial win, and the fifth consecutive at the Tour of the Basque Country (2017, 2018, 2021, 2022).