Primož Roglič seldom wishes a second to assume when he fields questions from the media. He is well known for being concise, sharp and in a position to finish pre- and post-race interviews with a artful quip sooner than focusing again on what he is hired to do – win races.
Then again, with a brand new season comes any other annual media day and an extraordinary probability to pick out the mind of the interesting personality Roglič in an extended interview. After answering what the Slovenian press sought after to understand for 40 mins and permitting the anglophone media to exchange in, the query which made Roglič take a breath and contemplate the longest used to be “What would you say motivates you the most to be successful, to win?”
“I have a really incredible opportunity, actually, in my life and my time being here. I changed sports from being a ski jumper to riding a bike and I could never imagine now doing quite so good and winning, yes, some bike races.
“It is a excitement, however then again, possibly additionally a accountability to have that. I simply you ought to be me and check out to do my highest within the time that I’ve right here, and that is the reason easy.”
Roglič has been a serial winner since he came to bike racing as a 23-year-old, racking up 88 wins as a professional, the equal fourth most among active male riders – coincidentally on the same amount as compatriot Tadej Pogačar.
He’s naturally shy in conversation and tends to keep to himself, which couldn’t be more contrasting with his propensity to be ruthless and attacking on the bike.
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Roglič of course recognises his role as a role model and the leader at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe because of his winning pedigree and status as a five-time Grand Tour champion but takes on that role by leading through example, letting the legs do the talking.
“I am shy, usually, I would favor to be on my own or cover someplace,” says Roglič of welcoming in new teammates like Maxim Van Gils before the season’s start. “However I attempt to meet the folks and check out to get to understand every different, particularly the blokes that clearly we will be able to paintings in combination.
“I don’t want to give this kind of impression [of being too shy], I mean, I didn’t bite anybody except the bars and the gels for the moment,” he laughs.
“We signed a bunch of strong guys. Putting all the best guys on paper at one race, it’s necessary that will work, then you need to connect all these pieces together. I’m looking forward to the season and spending more time together on the bike, to get to know each other and build trust between us.”
For Purple Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s leader of sports activities, Rolf Aldag, Roglič’s comeback win on the 2024 Vuelta a España used to be a key highlighter of the way he displays his management, additionally acknowledging how a lot more the Slovenian has settled into his function within the staff going into his 2nd yr.
“But saying that if you give him the forum, if you give him like the stage, say like in October, we had our first team meeting and this year he did come on stage to address the team and I think that was super nice.
“On occasion, he builds a wall and it is simply actually tough to seem over that wall. But when he opens up, he has one thing to mention, this is very legitimate to the group of workers and to his teammates.
“Also within the team, of course, performance always helps. There was a time last year when we as a team could not offer him the perfect platform as a rider to cash into results, which also turned around with victory at the Vuelta.
“I do assume, for all sides, it used to be crucial to turn that we’re there for every different, that we nonetheless consider in every different and that this partnership will also be very a hit.”
Roglič celebrates successful his fourth general Vuelta a España identify in Madrid (Symbol credit score: Zac Williams/SWpix)Resilient like Cavendish and nonetheless making improvements to at 35
Last year’s Vuelta, where Roglič took a record-equalling fourth title in Spain, was the third he’d won just months after suffering heartbreak at the Tour de France. In 2020, Pogačar snatched the yellow jersey from Roglič on the penultimate stage after a dramatic time trial win. In 2021 and 2024, crashes saw him abandon the Tour and again miss out on his career goal.
The time in Spain was another sign of Roglič’s ever-undying resilience. His luck at the Tour over the years might have been abysmal, however, his mental toughness and ability to bounce back can never be questioned. Several big crashes and injuries have left him battle-scarred but this resilience has come to be the story of his career.
Aldag, having worked with perennial comeback artist Mark Cavendish at Dimension Data, has seen similar resilience throughout his time in cycling but only very rarely and from the most special of riders.
“Smartly, as you understand, I labored with Mark Cavendish so I will inform you I went to greater highs and deeper lows with him as smartly. That is why I am nonetheless moderately comfy about Primož,” says Aldag with a smile. “In the event you assume it is going unhealthy, then you’ll assume again on one of the days with Cav.
“But these are very special characters. I do think firsthand that it does make them so successful – that they just never give up. They just keep on coming back. They believe in their own strengths and they keep on pushing forward.
“However, certainly, Primož, taking into account the entire international of biking and the 400 or no matter riders within the WorldTour peloton, there may be now not 3 of his type.”
With that resilience in mind, Roglič is hoping for another bounce back this coming season, looking to re-find his best form at the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France after being the fourth best of cycling’s so-called “large 4” before he crashed out last July.
For the Slovenian, the start of the season arrives next Wednesday, at the Volta ao Algarve. It’s one of only four races currently on his schedule for the season and, with former teammate Jonas Vingegaard also making his season debut in Portugal, it will be the first meeting of the four main GC stars in 2025.
“The purpose is solely to achieve my highest form. The effects might be what they are going to be,” says Roglič in his typical style. “I do not know the way rapid the entire different highest guys will cross, you understand, however taking a look at myself, what I will attempt for is to check out to construct myself into the most productive Primož that there used to be.
What precisely the most productive stage of himself is, Roglič is not moderately positive, on the other hand, he sees the extent he discovered ultimately yr’s Vuelta as a forged position to start out.
“Inside I still feel 20, I can even colour my hair to be more without grey ones to look younger,” he jokes, sooner than temporarily striking his critical hat again on. “The goal, let’s say I had a really high level in Vuelta last year, is to search for that shape and that level.”
Whilst Aldag and Purple Bull cannot keep an eye on how robust Pogačar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel might be initially of the Excursion, they’re nonetheless assured that their guy, even at 35, is getting more potent.
“We still feel, importantly, like he’s still getting better and still improving. There’s no thought that we’re on the top of the hill and now everything is about trying to slow down the downhill – we don’t feel like this,” says Aldag.
“Also, to my understanding from the performance team, his numbers are still getting better and that’s good to see. What we don’t have an influence on is what is Tadej going to do, and what Jonas is going to do.
“We really feel like if we do our protocols and processes completely, we will be able to be aggressive, however we will’t say greater than that. T the end result will simply be the result of whether or not we did the whole thing completely.”
But Roglič is far from done yet and the Vuelta showed exactly that. There have been several rumours of Red Bull trying to bring in Remco Evenepoel to chase their long-term goal of winning the Tour. However, they are still very much focused on and believe Roglič can bring them that in the immediacy.
“You return to some degree the place you can not say ‘Now we will have to win this’ if you do not know how have compatibility the others are,” continues the team’s Chief of Sport. “However I feel we are beautiful assured and it is important for us to mention, will we nonetheless see the spaces to fortify? Completely.
“We get more stability in nutrition. We get more stability in terms of racing to be very consistent over a period of time. We do learn about training, we still adapt our altitude philosophy… and Primož is still sharp as a razor blade.”
Roglič competes all over the 2024 Vuelta after getting back from extra Excursion de France heartbreak (Symbol credit score: Getty Photographs)The errors in their 2024 Excursion de France method
Aldag and Roglič have each admitted that some errors have been made of their first option to the Excursion in combination final season, with a number of learnings from the teachings of 2024 to be taken of their run-up to the Giro and Excursion this yr.
Requested, with hindsight, if he felt the staff did an excessive amount of of their thorough lead-up to the Excursion when a hefty altitude camp, adopted through competing on the Critérium du Dauphiné after which a 2nd top-up camp in Tignes, noticed riders now not go back house sooner than the race. Roglič may just most effective say sure.
“In that case, I would agree now, for sure. But like they always say, after the war, it’s quite easy to be smart,” says Roglič.
“It’s also important to always look back, not immediately, but maybe with a bit of distance. Then you can put emotions a bit on the side and really look how it was and try to learn. Hopefully this year, we won’t repeat the mistakes and we can react better if we find ourselves in the same situation.”
Aldag shed some extra gentle at the scenario confirming that it used to be the psychological aspect of his riders that used to be worst suffering from the burnout.
“I think motivation can also turn into something that you overdo, especially with things that you want to do perfectly,” says Aldag.
Issues began once they headed instantly from altitude to the Dauphiné, with cancelled flights inflicting a number of riders to reach at 3:30 am sooner than the race started.
Whilst they gained the necessary pre-Excursion shape marker with Roglič, it took moderately an effort from the Slovenian and his teammates. Once more, with the wonderful thing about hindsight, Aldag, who used to be head DS in France, believes they might have reined their competitive racing in somewhat.
“Looking back, maybe I should have taken it a little bit more relaxed and told the guys ‘We aim here for success, we want to prove ourselves as a team but let’s not overdo it’,” he says.
“There are some stages where I’m critical of myself. We could have approached it less offensive, not like running head first into the wall, assuming that the wall will collapse and we keep on going.”
The true harm, on the other hand, used to be finished on the top-up camp in Tignes, the place it “was literally raining every single day”. Aldag says he would now inform his riders to move house if a equivalent scenario arose.
“When we arrived at the Tour, we were probably physically OK, not fresh enough, but mentally cooked, and you don’t want to be like that at the start of the tour. That is irreversible, you cannot, say two days before, take it easy, like in training where you can taper and back off.
“On that psychological standing, if you are cooked, you are cooked, what do you do about it? Now now we have additionally added a psychological efficiency division, in order that would cling us again from making the similar selections now.
“I think even if the camp was paid, everything is done right, under that prediction of weather, under the conditions, I would now stop the camp, send everybody home and say ‘Relax, refresh, spend time with the family and come to the Tour de France’, that will be now my take. But as always, you cannot go back in time.”
Roglič competes all over the 2024 Vuelta after getting back from extra Excursion de France heartbreak (Symbol credit score: Zac Williams/SWpix)Coping with power forward of a Giro-Excursion double try
Roglič’s method will in fact be other from final yr with the Giro d’Italia on his plan sooner than the Excursion, returning to the Italian Grand Excursion for the primary time since his general victory there in 2023. Aldag sees attainable good fortune on the Giro being the best pre-Excursion rest way, particularly given Roglič’s closely blemished report in France.
“It’s going to be straightforward, isn’t it? We definitely don’t aim to put any race in between the Giro and the Tour so the preparation is clear,” he says. “Hopefully with some success and his head up high from Giro, we’ll feel ready. And then we can just relax, train and race, which he’s really good at.
“I’ve by no means observed Primož, if he isn’t unwell or injured, now not being race in a position after a coaching camp, so he is aware of what he can do. He will get his regimen. He is not involved through what his competition are doing.
“Of course, we will aim for success in the Giro. If we achieve that, then we will be much calmer and much more relaxed going into the Tour knowing what he and his coach [Marc Lamberts] are going to do on day minus 15 to the Tour, minus 12 to the Tour and minus five to the Tour. I see it as a very good path.”
Roglič hasn’t completed his earlier 3 Excursion begins and the power might be the entire identical at the street from Lille again to Paris come July 5. However a lot of that power and wish to prevail, regardless of his reserved and quiet manner is self-inflicted. And whilst his reaction to what drives him to win will have been “I just want to be myself”, that still way being a winner.
“I think the biggest pressure comes from himself,” says Aldag. “This is sometimes hard for people to figure out because it’s typical of Primož if you do interview him, often he ends up in these phrases like ‘If I’m good, I will attack, if I’m not good, they will drop me.’ Now, is that his real way of thinking? Of course not.
“He has an expectation. He is aware of the place he needs to be. Does he display that at all times? Now not actually. I do assume he copes with a large number of that stuff through himself but additionally works along with his sports activities psychologist.
“They have a long-term relationship and I think that is important, that he’s not alone and that he feels it is something he wants to talk about. He can come to us, but he also has a structure that he knows over years and years that he can rely on.
“I feel he needs to win. A Primož who does now not wish to win is most certainly taking into account preventing skilled biking and on the lookout for one thing else, as a result of successful drives him.”
