Earlier this summer, the Slovenian saw the Tour de France yellow jersey fall dramatically. It was an incident of Dejo Wu when he was dropped by runner-up Richard Carpas on the final climb of the 178.2km stage on Saturday. The 31-year-old clung on.

Roglik leads Ecuador’s Carapas in 24 seconds and Britain’s Hugh Carty in 47 seconds.

Gaddu, who claimed his second round victory, made it into the top ten in the general classification.

Roglik was in total control when Karthi first attacked him, traveling about four kilometers. But the Jumbo Wisma rider got stuck in the tar three kilometers away from the brutal acceleration line by Carapas.

As the light dimmed on the Alto de la Covatilla, Roglik’s expectations fell to a total of 18 seconds.

The Cape of Good Hope dug deeper than the last kilometer of the Rogli plateau and left behind the heartbeat of the Tour de France.

About three minutes ago, the 24 – year – old Gaddu crossed the line for a solo victory, finishing eighth in the general rankings on his first grand tour as a team leader with Groupma-FDJ.

Additional reporting by Reuters.