Each journey has to begin someplace, even for stars like Primož Roglič. And in simply two phrases on the closing end line of the Volta ao Algarve – “Sure, positively” – the ever-laconic Pink Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe star confirmed he was racing on the degree he had anticipated for this level within the yr, and brushed away any sort of concern, on his half a minimum of, that his lowkey efficiency in his first race of the 2025 season had been wherever beneath his expectations.
It was true that Roglič had come into the Algarve aiming to do his finest on GC: However because the Slovenian veteran had already warned final winter he wouldn’t be trying to placed on an important efficiency.
So whereas it is also true that on many events Roglič has claimed to be in horrible type pre-race, solely to promptly pulverize the opposition when he really began racing, on this event, he saved to his low season phrase, and ended up a decent, however not notably earthshattering, eighth total, 53 seconds down on former teammate Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike)
Eleventh within the closing time trial up the Malhao, Roglič instructed reporters afterwards in a sometimes succinct interview that whereas he had made a superb effort – “arduous however good” was how he outlined his efficiency on Sunday – total he was joyful together with his first race of 2025. Or as he put it, “I loved it loads and it was good.”
The essential level, although, was when requested if he was the place he wished to be for this time of yr, Roglič confirmed that by saying “Sure, positively.”
“Clearly, I did not actually peak or be at my finest right here in Algarve,” he added. “I actually selected it, simply [to be] for the beginning of the season and there is nonetheless lots of work to do. However I am getting in the correct path.”
Roglič’s subsequent competitors would be the Volta a Catalunya, a race the Slovenian gained narrowly again in 2023 in a dramatic duel towards Remco Evenepoel. And identical to in 2023, there are solely six weeks between the tip of Catalunya and the beginning of the Giro d’Italia.
The seven-day race by means of the Pyrenees will probably be a way more reasonable check of Roglič’s probabilities of a repeat success within the Italian Grand Tour, too. Solely this time, somewhat than Evenepoel, it is Vingegaard who will doubtless be Roglič’s fundamental challenger in Catalunya.
