Win, lose or - as happened on Thursday in the Volta a Catalunya - all but draw, Primož Roglič is rarely the most effusive or communicative of individuals. But to judge by the way he grinned and waved at acquaintances as he warmed down after conquering both the stage win and the overall lead at the Volta's summit finishes, and as low cloud began to envelop the mountains of Montserrat, there could be little doubt that on Roglič was in the best of moods.
That was maybe only logical, given that in a ferociously tactical finale at the Montserrat summit, played out in a drawn-out duel over a couple of kilometres against arch-rival Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe leader had not only won, but he'd achieved multiple goals, too, all at once.
First and foremost, in a mirror image of the two-up sprint that had decided the previous day's stage 3 of the Volta, Roglič had beaten the Spaniard by almost exactly the same distance he had lost 24 hours earlier - a scant tyre's width. So albeit by the tiniest of margins, the Slovenian veteran simultaneously secured his first stage victory of the this season and the overall lead to boot, as well as ensuring that any doubts about his longstanding ability to outsprint his rivals evaporated in an instant.
In the second near-bunch sprint at a summit finish, Roglič and Ayuso also distanced their rivals at the stage summit by a further three seconds. That's hardly a major gain, and in any case, it's not a real reflection of the superiority they showed over the rest of the field in the closing kilometres, where Roglič was the only rider able to respond in full to Ayuso's initial attack. Yet, as Roglič pointed out afterwards, for all he and Ayuso are ahead of the field, for now, neither of the race's two top GC names really has the edge on the other.
"We are equal, yesterday he won by a bit, today it was me by a bit, it's fun," Roglič said with a grin to reporters, while behind the small knot of media surrounding the Slovenian veteran, Ayuso stepped off the winner's podium bus after receiving his latest jersey as Best Young Rider classification leader and silently walked away without talking to the press.
"Today I was a bit better as a sprinter, but it's sport, it's a sprint, it's whatever - sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Mostly, I'm just happy I have the legs again; they were good enough at the end, and we'll see how it ends."
If Roglič's well-known ability for uphill sprinting was what netted him the stage win, curiously enough it was his lesser known talent for speed on the flat which gained him the lead. In an intermediate sprint early on stage 4, the Slovenian had snatched three seconds from a first place, which combined with the ten seconds he then took at the finish, put him tied on time with Ayuso on GC.
"I'm not a sprinter but I'm trying to beat him, today I was obviously bit faster - or the race was a bit slower, I cannot decide," Roglič said with a grin at his own joke.
Roglič and Ayuso are both tipped to be top favourites again at the Giro d'Italia, but the Slovenian refused to be drawn about how these repeat duels reflect on his longer-term options for May.
"[It doesn't mean] anything, really. Tomorrow is a hard day, and there are more to follow, so we'll go day by day. I'm not thinking about it that much, if I'm honest, he said."
Roglič was much more communicative when it came to looking back at his racing and training so far this year, and what this latest triumph means for him.
"I always say, every win is closer to the last one, so it's always nice to win," the 35-year-old said about his 89th career victory to date.
"I'm super-happy to do it. I was at the training camp, and I put in some good training there, and it's nice that you can win because, in my case, I have spent three weeks on Teide and came straight here. So I sacrificed four weeks straight away from my family. It's nice when you can get something back."
With the two top names so close together, the current race scenario has distinct echoes of the Volta a Catalunya, which Roglič won in 2023. Two years ago, he claimed the overall victory by holding off Remco Evenepoel by a scant six seconds, with the rest of the field at some distance from the two top names.
So, assuming the crosswinds do not kick in on Friday's flat stage through the Empordà, Catalunya's southernmost region, it now remains to be seen if Roglič or Ayuso will manage to pry open a gap on the final crunch mountain stage on Saturday. For the moment, though, and as Roglič said, the GC battle is just too close to call.
