Primoš Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) was back this week to test his cobblestone race technique in another Tour de France victory, this time in the Grand Prix de Denain.

This summer's Tour de France will feature nearly 20 km of cobblestone racing.

With this in mind, Roglic and teammate Jonas Vingegaard (who will co-lead Jumbo Visma in the Tour de France) took part in the mid-week Grand Prix de Denain to solidify their technique for racing speed over the cobbles of northern France. He took part in the Grand Prix de Dounan.

Prior to the race, Jambovisma officials explained that rather than using the rough pavement of the Flanders Classics as a test, the smooth cobblestones on the GP Denain route were more similar to those the peloton would tackle in stage 5 from Lille to Arenberg this summer.

A puncture in the final stages took Vingegaard out of the main race, but Roglic proved that he is good on cobblestones. The Slovenian, fresh from his victory in Paris-Nice, took part in the second half of the 35 km braking with Ineos Grenadier: Magnus Sheffield, Jonathan Narvaez, Ben Turner, and Frenchman Damien Touzet (AG2R Citroen).

Roglic, who was caught up in the pack with 2km to go, said after the finish: "I almost made it, but I am very happy with my performance, which was noticed in unfamiliar territory."

"I came here to experience the cobbles more than any particular result," Roglic, who finished 36th, 22 seconds behind eventual winner Max Valscheidt (Cofidis), told reporters at the finish.

Compared to the 19.4 km that the peloton will tackle in this summer's Tour, this year's Dunain GP had just over 20 km of cobbles in 12 sections.

"You have to stay focused at all times. When you get into each cobblestone sector, you get really nervous.

"Here you could drive on the side of the road and the grass edges were smoother than the cobblestones. You have to stay in the middle."

Roglic also highlighted the narrowness of the cobblestone sector. However, other witnesses to GP Dunant said they were impressed by what they saw.

"He was like a machine, very strong, leading every time a sector started," Adrien Petit (Intermarché Gaubert Wanty Materieux), third overall, later told L'Equipe magazine.

However, Roglic's success, he said, was not enough in the short term to foster plans to participate in cycling's ultimate challenge, the cobbled Paris-Roubaix.

Indeed, after the GP Denain, Roglic's next stop was a flight from Brussels to Italy, to an entirely different monument: Milan-San Remo on Saturday.