Roglic suffered a bad crash at the back end of stage three and has battled on despite numerous injuries.
The first day in the high country proved too much for the Slovenian on Saturday who only crossed the finish line moments before the cut off, an incredible 35 minutes behind stage 8 winner Dylan Teuns.
The Slovenian was also visibly suffering on stage seven and was dropped by the peloton on the second category climb of Signal d’Uchon.
With more gruelling climbs through the alps up ahead, the 2020 Tour de France runner-up and his Jumbo Visma team made the tough decision to call time on his pursuit of the yellow jersey.
“We made this choice together”, Roglic said.
“There is no point in continuing this way. Now it’s time to recover and focus on my new goals. I am very disappointed that I have to leave the Tour, but I have to accept it as it is. I remain optimistic and look forward.”
“Immediately after my crash in the third stage, I did not think that crash would herald my departure from the Tour. I never look that far ahead. After a few days I saw that I was not making any progress in my recovery.
Even though I surprised myself in the time trial, I had a bad feeling again the days after. The long and tough stages take their toll. I will now focus on recovering from that.”
Jumbo Visma will now likely turn to Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard to lead their GC aspirations with support from Wout Van Aert and Sepp Kuss.
Vingegaard starts stage nine in tenth position in the general classification, four minutes and nine seconds behind race leader Tadej Pogacar.
Stage nine will be another day in the mountains for the peloton with two category two climbs, two category one climbs and a Hors category climb on the 144.9 kilometre route between Cluses and Tignes.
