Part of an initial 33-man breakaway, the 27-year-old rider mounted a successful attack on the final ascent of the first stage of this year's Tour in the Alps, 34 kilometres before the finish line.

He reached the highest point of the 2017 Tour, the Col du Galibie at over 2,600 metres above sea level, with a cushion of more than a minute for a comfortable descent into Serre Chevalier to claim the 17th stage.

The LottoNL-Jumbo rider had equalled Slovenia's best stage result so far with a fourth place on Sunday. His biggest success so before today been a time-trial win at Giro d'Italia last year.

"I can't really form all these feelings yet, but I'll probably know later how big all this is...I just somehow decided to go for it today. My girlfriend and my family were here today, I saw all these Slovenian flags for the first time, it was crazy," Roglič said immediately after the race.

He left his closest followers 1 minute and 13 seconds behind today, while he is 30th in the overall qualification, having had to work for LottoNL-Jumbo team captain George Bennett for the most part of the tour. Bennett withdrew during the stage before today's.

Roglič's achievements are extra remarkable considering that he only became a professional cyclist after 2012. He had been a ski jumper before and won gold with the Slovenian team at at the junior world ski-jumping championships in 2007.