Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) rode to victory ahead of new Hour Record holder Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Soudal) in the San Marino time trial on stage nine of the Giro d'Italia 2019.
Favourite for the Giro d'Italia overall victory, Roglič won by 11 seconds but recognised that Campenaerts had some bad luck over the 34.8km course.
"Yeah, it's s**t for him but on the other hand, you know what I mean, he had dry conditions from the start," Roglič said.
"Everyone always has something, but I didn't focus on that or want to comment on them, I just wanted to go as fast as possible in these conditions."
The Belgian hour record holder dropped his chain and had to change bikes near the final kilometre of the ride, going on to say that that had cost him the win.
As well as the stage win, Roglič took time out of his GC rivals. 1-05 from Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) and 3-11 from Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott). Those gains give him even more of an advantage as the 2019 edition races towards its first high-mountain stage on Friday's stage 13 to Lago Serrù.
"I wasn't thinking about that [the GC riders], my focus was on how to get through this long TT as fast as possible," Roglič said as rain continued to pour after the finish.
"It's always better to have seconds in advantage rather than disadvantage, but I'll repeat, it's a really long way to the finish."
What may prove important for Roglič is that he is not currently leading the Giro, but sits second overall. Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates) took the pink jersey after it was ceded to him by the Slovenian on stage six, with the Italian defending it well today.
"It's ok, the guys see it's quite hard to control the race lead every day with the jersey and for sure the happiest guy will be the guy with the jersey in Verona," Roglic said.
The 2019 Giro ends in Verona, which is still two weeks away and culminates with a 17km time trial to the famous Arena.
"Yeah, of course, I think it's good for our team" Roglic added, speaking on not currently having the pink jersey. "I'll enjoy this victory and the rest day tomorrow, and then the focus is back."
