Primož Roglič seldom wants a second to suppose 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 intelligent quip earlier than focusing again on what he is employed to do – win races.
Nonetheless, with a brand new season comes one other annual media day and a uncommon probability to choose the mind of the fascinating character Roglič in an extended interview. After answering what the Slovenian press needed to know for 40 minutes and permitting the anglophone media to substitute in, the query which made Roglič take a breath and ponder the longest was “What would you say motivates you probably the most to achieve success, to win?”
“It is a onerous query eh… However onerous query, or not, I simply wish to be myself,” says Roglič to a small group together with Cyclingnews after an extended pause.
“I’ve a extremely unimaginable alternative, truly, in my life and my time being right here. I modified sports activities from being a ski jumper to driving a motorbike and I may by no means think about now doing fairly so good and successful, sure, some bike races.
“It is a pleasure, however then again, perhaps additionally a duty to have that. I simply attempt to be me and attempt to do my greatest within the time that I’ve right here, and that is easy.”
Roglič has been a serial winner since he got here to bike racing as a 23-year-old, racking up 88 wins as knowledgeable, the equal fourth most amongst energetic male riders – coincidentally on the identical quantity as compatriot Tadej Pogačar.
He is naturally shy in dialog and tends to maintain to himself, which could not be extra contrasting together with his propensity to be ruthless and attacking on the bike.
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Roglič after all recognises his position as a task mannequin and the chief at Crimson Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe due to his successful pedigree and standing as a five-time Grand Tour champion however takes on that position by main by way of instance, letting the legs do the speaking.
“I am shy, usually, I would like to be alone or cover someplace,” says Roglič of welcoming in new teammates like Maxim Van Gils earlier than the season’s begin. “However I attempt to meet the individuals and attempt to get to know one another, particularly the blokes that clearly we’ll work collectively.
“I do not wish to give this sort of impression [of being too shy], I imply, I did not chew anyone besides the bars and the gels for the second,” he laughs.
“We signed a bunch of sturdy guys. Placing all the most effective guys on paper at one race, it is necessary that may work, then you might want to join all these items collectively. I am wanting ahead to the season and spending extra time collectively on the bike, to get to know one another and construct belief between us.”
For Crimson Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s chief of sports activities, Rolf Aldag, Roglič’s comeback win on the 2024 Vuelta a España was a key highlighter of how he exhibits his management, additionally acknowledging how far more the Slovenian has settled into his position within the workforce going into his second 12 months.
“He nonetheless has that tremendous optimistic perspective in direction of his job, and he leads by instance, not with large phrases,” Aldag tells Cyclingnews per week earlier than Roglič’s season debut.
“However saying that in case you give him the discussion board, in case you give him just like the stage, say like in October, we had our first workforce assembly and this 12 months he did come on stage to deal with the workforce and I believe that was tremendous good.
“Typically, he builds a wall and it is simply actually troublesome to look over that wall. But when he opens up, he has one thing to say, that may be very legitimate to the employees and to his teammates.
“Additionally throughout the workforce, after all, efficiency all the time helps. There was a time final 12 months after we as a workforce couldn’t supply him the proper platform as a rider to money into outcomes, which additionally circled with victory on the Vuelta.
“I do suppose, for each side, it was crucial to indicate that we’re there for one another, that we nonetheless imagine in one another and that this partnership will be very profitable.”
Resilient like Cavendish and nonetheless enhancing at 35
Final 12 months’s Vuelta, the place Roglič took a record-equalling fourth title in Spain, was the third he’d gained simply months after struggling heartbreak on 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 noticed him abandon the Tour and once more miss out on his profession purpose.
The time in Spain was one other signal of Roglič’s ever-undying resilience. His luck on the Tour through the years might need been abysmal, nonetheless, his psychological toughness and talent to bounce again can by no means be questioned. A number of huge crashes and accidents have left him battle-scarred however this resilience has come to be the story of his profession.
Aldag, having labored with perennial comeback artist Mark Cavendish at Dimension Information, has seen comparable resilience all through his time in biking however solely very not often and from probably the most particular of riders.
“Properly, as , I labored with Mark Cavendish so I can inform you I went to larger highs and deeper lows with him as effectively. That is why I am nonetheless fairly relaxed about Primož,” says Aldag with a smile. “If you happen to suppose it is going dangerous, then you may suppose again on a number of the days with Cav.
“However these are very particular characters. I do suppose firsthand that it does make them so profitable – that they only by no means quit. They only carry on coming again. They imagine in their very own strengths and so they carry on pushing ahead.
“However, certainly, Primož, contemplating the entire world of biking and the 400 or no matter riders within the WorldTour peloton, there’s not three of his sort.”
With that resilience in thoughts, Roglič is hoping for one more bounce again this coming season, trying to re-find his greatest type on the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France after being the fourth better of biking’s so-called “huge 4” earlier than he crashed out final July.
For the Slovenian, the beginning of the season arrives subsequent Wednesday, on the Volta ao Algarve. It is certainly one of solely 4 races presently on his schedule for the season and, with former teammate Jonas Vingegaard additionally making his season debut in Portugal, will probably be the primary assembly of the 4 primary GC stars in 2025.
“The purpose is simply to succeed in my greatest form. The outcomes will likely be what they are going to be,” says Roglič in his typical type. “I do not know the way quick all the opposite greatest guys will go, , however myself, what I can attempt for is to attempt to construct myself into the most effective Primož that there was.
What precisely the most effective degree of himself is, Roglič is not fairly certain, nonetheless, he sees the extent he discovered eventually 12 months’s Vuelta as a stable place to begin.
“Inside I nonetheless really feel 20, I may even color my hair to be extra with out gray ones to look youthful,” he jokes, earlier than rapidly placing his severe hat again on. “The purpose, as an example I had a extremely excessive degree in Vuelta final 12 months, is to seek for that form and that degree.”
Whereas Aldag and Crimson Bull cannot management how sturdy Pogačar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel will likely be at the beginning of the Tour, they’re nonetheless assured that their man, even at 35, is getting stronger.
“We nonetheless really feel, importantly, like he is nonetheless getting higher and nonetheless enhancing. There is no thought that we’re on the highest of the hill and now every part is about making an attempt to decelerate the downhill – we do not really feel like this,” says Aldag.
“Additionally, to my understanding from the efficiency workforce, his numbers are nonetheless getting higher and that is good to see. What we do not have an affect on is what’s Tadej going to do, and what Jonas goes to do.
“We really feel like if we do our protocols and processes completely, we will likely be aggressive, however we won’t say greater than that. T the end result will simply be the consequence of whether or not we did every part completely.”
However Roglič is way from performed but and the Vuelta confirmed precisely that. There have been a number of rumours of Crimson Bull making an attempt to usher in Remco Evenepoel to chase their long-term purpose of successful the Tour. Nonetheless, they’re nonetheless very a lot centered on and imagine Roglič can convey them that within the immediacy.
“You come to some extent the place you can’t say ‘Now we should win this’ if you do not know how match the others are,” continues the workforce’s Chief of Sport. “However I believe we’re fairly assured and it is necessary for us to say, can we nonetheless see the areas to enhance? Completely.
“We get extra stability in diet. We get extra stability by way of racing to be very constant over a time frame. We do find out about coaching, we nonetheless adapt our altitude philosophy… and Primož remains to be sharp as a razor blade.”
The errors of their 2024 Tour de France strategy
Aldag and Roglič have each admitted that some errors had been made of their first strategy to the Tour collectively final season, with a number of learnings from the teachings of 2024 to be taken of their run-up to the Giro and Tour this 12 months.
Requested, with hindsight, if he felt the workforce did an excessive amount of of their thorough lead-up to the Tour when a hefty altitude camp, adopted by competing on the Critérium du Dauphiné after which a second top-up camp in Tignes, noticed riders not return residence earlier than the race. Roglič may solely say sure.
“In that case, I might agree now, for certain. However like they all the time say, after the conflict, it is fairly straightforward to be good,” says Roglič.
“It is also necessary to all the time look again, not instantly, however perhaps with a little bit of distance. Then you may put feelings a bit on the facet and actually look the way it was and attempt to be taught. Hopefully this 12 months, we can’t repeat the errors and we will react higher if we discover ourselves in the identical state of affairs.”
Aldag shed some extra mild on the state of affairs confirming that it was the psychological facet of his riders that was worst affected by the burnout.
“I believe motivation can even flip into one thing that you just overdo, particularly with issues that you just wish to do completely,” 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 earlier than the race started.
Whereas they gained the necessary pre-Tour type marker with Roglič, it took fairly an effort from the Slovenian and his teammates. Once more, with the great thing about hindsight, Aldag, who was head DS in France, believes they may have reined their aggressive racing in barely.
“Wanting again, perhaps I ought to have taken it a bit of bit extra relaxed and instructed the blokes ‘We goal right here for achievement, we wish to show ourselves as a workforce however let’s not overdo it’,” he says.
“There are some levels the place I am vital of myself. We may have approached it much less offensive, not like working head first into the wall, assuming that the wall will collapse and we carry on going.”
The true injury, nonetheless, was performed on the top-up camp in Tignes, the place it “was actually raining each single day”. Aldag says he would now inform his riders to go residence if an identical state of affairs arose.
“After we arrived on the Tour, we had been in all probability bodily OK, not recent sufficient, however mentally cooked, and you do not wish to be like that at the beginning of the tour. That’s irreversible, you can’t, say two days earlier than, take it straightforward, like in coaching the place you may taper and again off.
“On that psychological standing, in case you’re cooked, you are cooked, what do you do about it? Now we’ve got additionally added a psychological efficiency division, so that might maintain us again from making the identical selections now.
“I believe even when the camp was paid, every part is completed proper, beneath that prediction of climate, beneath the circumstances, I might now cease the camp, ship all people residence and say ‘Loosen up, refresh, spend time with the household and are available to the Tour de France’, that will likely be now my take. However as all the time, you can’t return in time.”
Coping with strain forward of a Giro-Tour double try
Roglič’s strategy will after all be totally different from final 12 months with the Giro d’Italia on his plan earlier than the Tour, returning to the Italian Grand Tour for the primary time since his total victory there in 2023. Aldag sees potential success on the Giro being the perfect pre-Tour leisure technique, particularly given Roglič’s closely blemished report in France.
“It should be simple, is not it? We undoubtedly do not goal to place any race in between the Giro and the Tour so the preparation is evident,” he says. “Hopefully with some success and his head up excessive from Giro, we’ll really feel prepared. After which we will simply loosen up, practice and race, which he is actually good at.
“I’ve by no means seen Primož, if he isn’t sick or injured, not being race prepared after a coaching camp, so he is aware of what he can do. He will get his routine. He isn’t involved by what his opponents are doing.
“After all, we’ll goal for achievement within the Giro. If we obtain that, then we will likely be a lot calmer and far more relaxed going into the Tour realizing 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 5 to the Tour. I see it as an excellent path.”
Roglič hasn’t completed his earlier three Tour begins and the strain will likely be all the identical on the highway from Lille again to Paris come July 5. However a lot of that strain and have to succeed, regardless of his reserved and quiet manner is self-inflicted. And whereas his response to what drives him to win might have been “I simply wish to be myself”, that additionally means being a winner.
“I believe the largest strain comes from himself,” says Aldag. “That is typically onerous for individuals to determine as a result of it is typical of Primož in case you do interview him, typically he leads to these phrases like ‘If I am good, I’ll assault, if I am not good, they are going to drop me.’ Now, is that his actual mind-set? After all not.
“He has an expectation. He is aware of the place he needs to be. Does he present that on a regular basis? Not likely. I do suppose he copes with a variety of that stuff by himself but in addition works together with his sports activities psychologist.
“They’ve a long-term relationship and I believe that’s necessary, that he isn’t alone and that he feels it’s one thing he needs to speak about. He can come to us, however he additionally has a construction that he is aware of over years and years that he can depend on.
“I believe he needs to win. A Primož who doesn’t wish to win might be contemplating stopping skilled biking and in search of one thing else, as a result of successful drives him.”
