“It is potential.” Primož Roglič is rarely one to beat in regards to the bush relating to stating his objectives, or the rest for that matter – and as for successful the Giro d’Italia this Might, his reply isn’t any totally different to when Cyclingnews first asked him about conquering the maglia rosa back in 2019.
The 2019 Giro was Roglič’s first-ever Grand Tour as a crew chief. Since then he is conquered the Vuelta a España a record-equalling four times, the Giro as soon as, in 2023, and gained a mess of one-day and week-long stage races. Within the course of, he is grow to be a large of the game – and the beginning favorite to win the corsa rosa this yr, too.
By having a just about race-free spring, however with one major victory in the Volta a Catalunya this March earlier than transferring straight on to collaborating within the Giro d’Italia, at 35, Roglič confirms he is making an attempt one thing of a recent method. However he is already observed one profit. The dearth of racing this yr, he agrees, has made him ‘hungrier to win’.
“Sure, for certain,” he advised Cyclingnews late this April, earlier than declaring along with his typical humour – so dry and self-deprecating that typically you’ll be able to’t inform if he is pulling your leg or not – that as one of many veterans, “I’ve to avoid wasting my power too, you realize, I am outdated.” Then he factors out with one other wry snigger, “I can’t be in all places any extra. I’ve to handle issues properly.”
Proper now at ‘Camp Roglič’ on the Teide within the Canary Islands, the temper has been markedly upbeat, regardless of this being his second prolonged bout of altitude coaching of the yr. (“All good, every part lovely, at all times sunny. Wind? That relies upon the place you stand,” is Roglič’s succinct evaluation of how he is obtained on coaching and staying a number of weeks at altitude excessive on Teide’s uncovered, barren and empty moonscape).
It is certainly partly due to how properly he obtained on in Catalunya, however much more as a result of he is been coaching on the Teide along with his longstanding good friend, compatriot and new teammate since 2025 at Crimson Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Jan Tratnik.
The 35-year-old will probably be racing with Roglič for the primary time within the Giro. “It ought to have occurred in 2023, however a automotive ran me down when coaching simply earlier than, so the very first thing is to get there to the beginning okay,” Tratnik says with a smile – and their mutual pleasure that they are going to be tackling their first Grand Tour collectively because the Vuelta in 2023 is palpable all over the interview.
The jokes and good reminiscences abound, too, corresponding to when Cyclingnews asks Roglič in regards to the two glasses of cherry juice he reportedly has as a restoration drink throughout stage races – “I would desire beer” is his pithy reply, “however possibly not throughout the Giro”. “He hasn’t provided me any but,” Tratnik sparks again when requested if he is additionally a fan of cherry juice. Then after we go down reminiscence lane and they’re requested about their first recollections as racers again when to 2012 after they crossed paths on the the tiny Radenska squad in Slovenia, they each open up with some amusing anecdotes.
“For certain, I keep in mind the primary coaching experience when Primož joined us,” Tratnik, a fourth-year professional on the time, says. “We did a recon of the Tour of Slovenia route and Primož nonetheless raced as an novice novice so he simply joined us for that coaching experience. However it did not finish properly as a result of throughout the coaching experience, he dropped us all, so all of us ended up asking ‘Who is that this man?’
“The beginning of the yr was loopy, to me they [the Radenska Conti squad] seemed like next-level professionals, the form of guys I needed to be,” Roglič says, laughingly recalling about how daunted and out of his depth he had felt.
“I simply do not forget that yr we did one coaching experience – I do not know if Jan was there, it was in February however it was nonetheless chilly and I truly did not know what to put on, and even easy methods to type out my bike correctly.
“So I simply placed on all the garments I presumably might, no matter I had, after which I went there. Once I obtained there, I keep in mind the fellows possibly simply had socks over their sneakers and that was it, small issues like that that seemed actually cool {and professional}. As for me, I would just placed on ‘full’ – I used to be carrying no matter I might discover at house, I put all of it on, and I wore that!
“Then instantly after we began using, I used to be already on the again, not allowed to do something, simply sitting in the back of the group. Fuck, I keep in mind it was 30kph and I used to be exploding, considering ‘I can not maintain this’ and ‘Why am I doing this? Perhaps it is not such a good suggestion.”
Luckily for biking followers, given how essential part of professional biking he is been since then, quite than peel off from the experience and head house Roglič caught it out. A lot so, actually, that having determined it was a good suggestion, he resolutely continued on his pathway all the best way to professionals, first with Adria Mobil in 2013, then with LottoNL-Jumbo from 2016 and now, from 2024 with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, all of the whereas choosing up 91 profession wins so far.
However in spite of everything that point, to suppose that Roglič was as soon as the novice child who dropped all the professionals, regardless of his considering he had worn too many garments to the coaching experience, he’s now the lead favorite for the Giro d’Italia is one these great narrative arcs that typically it appears like solely biking can produce. Notably when the man that watched him experience away from the professionals method again in 2012 someplace in Slovenia will now be his key lieutenant this Might, and past.
On prime of that, as Roglič factors out, the Giro is just like the duo’s house Grand Tour, being so near Slovenia, and it is truly visiting their nation this yr within the second week, too. Within the 2023 Giro, everyone might see when powered in the direction of the pink jersey on the ultimate TT how a lot of a rapturous reception he was getting from Slovenian followers lining the roadside.
The identical occurred in 2024, too, in fact, when Tadej Pogačar confirmed his maintain on the Giro on the second final day at Bassano de Grappa. In each circumstances, the race was comparatively near Slovenia on the Italian aspect of the border. So the form of welcome the Giro will obtain when it crosses over on stage 14 this yr, notably if Roglič is again in pink, can solely be imagined.
“From my aspect, that is only a pleasure,” Roglič says about his fourth Giro begin, and virtually no matter how the race pans out. “It is the primary of the Grand Excursions, one of many greatest races of the entire yr and doing it along with my good friend and teammate is even nicer. So yeah, I am simply trying ahead to the challenges to come back.”
It is value remembering that whereas 2019 successfully kicked off his Grand Tour GC profession – he positioned third within the Giro that yr, earlier than occurring to overcome the Vuelta – Roglič has been a mannequin of consistency in Grand Tour victories. 2022 has been the one yr he is didn’t win not less than one, when he crashed out of the Vuelta within the third week simply as he beginning to make inroads on Remco Evenepoel‘s lead.
However in 2024, different crew sources have mentioned in different interviews, there was a interval of adaptation to his new Crimson Bull squad that took some time to finish. The plus aspect is, once more, in 2025, as after practically a decade with Visma-Lease a Bike below its earlier sponsor titles, now he has had way more time to get used to being on board a special ship – and captaining it, too.
“Sure, for certain,” Roglič confirms. “Though when Crimson Bull got here on board, it felt like a brand new crew once more, as a result of there have been so many new faces. However not less than the fellows I knew had been already right here, and that saves power, it helps you it feels extra like house if you happen to can name it like that. After you’ve got been there for one yr, you are extra relaxed.”
The crew captain
Roglič’s personal previous within the Giro is essential however Tratnik himself has a particular relationship with the Giro for a number of causes, too. It was the place he won his only Grand Tour stage to date, again in 2020 in opposition to no much less a determine than Ben O’Connor, from a protracted, unpredictably huge – 28 riders – third week break. As he reminds Cyclingnews, “that was within the COVID yr, so the entire season was actually ‘rock’n’roll’, I did not know what to anticipate.
“It was good to take that final alternative within the Giro as a result of all the following phases had been actually onerous ones. It additionally occurred fairly near Slovenia, we truly went by way of it on the stage and plenty of followers had been there, in order that was a very good reminiscence.”
But once more, too, the Tratnik-Roglič connection emerged, regardless that Roglič was not within the Giro that yr. “On the day I gained, Primož gained within the Vuelta,” – the opening stage of that yr’s COVID-delayed race, ending on the perilously rain-soaked Basque climb of Arrate – “in order that was good too.”
Tratnik’s function within the 2025 Giro is one in all crew captain, he explains, which means repeat breakaways like in 2020 are not less than initially off the menu, however different challenges have taken its place. “I am going to organise the crew throughout the race, assist contacts between riders and sport administrators and skim the race to see what is going to occur, to execute actions and hold every part below management for so long as I am there.
“I believe I am the man who can do numerous flat, medium, hilly phases, tough ones, however anyway for the excessive mountains, we’ve got a very sturdy lineup too: three to 4 nice climbers, and the remainder of us will work extra on flat and the medium-flat. In order that’s primarily going to be my job.”
The return of the long-distance assault
Then there’s the primary man himself. Final yr it missed no one’s consideration that quite than utilizing his tried-and-tested Grand Tour successful technique of attacking near the summit of mountain tops and snatching bonus seconds and small, last-kilometre gaps to carve out a lead, when it got here to conquering the 2024 Vuelta a España Roglič dealt with issues quite in a different way.
In his most up-to-date of 5 Grand Tour victories, the Crimson Bull star needed to claw again a lot time on sudden chief Ben O’Connor that Roglič adopted, virtually as a matter of obligation, a longer-distance attacking marketing campaign.
He had carried out the identical beforehand within the Vuelta on a few phases, most notably again in 2021 within the Lagos de Covadonga, when he attacked with Egan Bernal to seal the victory. However regardless of Covadonga being one in all Roglič’s most memorable rides ever in his profession, it remained one thing of a one-off tactic whereas within the Vuelta 2024 he used the tactic way more continuously. Then, within the Volta a Catalunya, Roglič repeated the identical long-distance transfer, and to devastating impact.
Whereas his first race of the season on the Volta ao Algarve had veered abruptly between a robust displaying on stage 2 on the Alto de Foia and a lacklustre closing time trial, within the Volta a Catalunya on the roads by way of Montjuic Park in central Barcelona, Roglič turned in a jaw-dropping 30-kilometre transfer, that left one in all his key Giro rivals, Juan Ayuso (UAE Group Emirates-XRG), reeling and and total victory within the bag, too.
That continued use of this extra weapon in Roglič’s armoury will doubtless have given his rivals a lot meals for thought, notably when it additionally gave Roglič precisely the perfect consequence he might have needed, coming into the Giro, too. In spite of everything, if he might do this in a race like Catalunya the place the GC victory was, not less than initially, not the definitive aim, who is aware of what he can now do in Might with extra altitude coaching?
“Yeah, like I already mentioned there, it was lovely, as a result of I did Algarve, then I went to coaching camp, then Catalunya,” Roglič recollects. “So it was simply good to see I had educated properly up right here on Teide, and the extent was excessive. I used to be good, so it was actually lovely, truly, to take that one.
“I imply, though, on the finish, it would not change in any respect the results of Giro or no matter, in that case – Catalunya is already within the pocket.”
‘We should not be afraid of anyone’
Catalunya was additionally the week-long WorldTour race Roglič gained in 2023 previous to triumphing within the Giro that yr, which is an encouraging precedent for the Slovenian veteran 24 months later. However probably the most encouraging ingredient about successful the Giro two years in the past, he agrees, is that it is proved he can do it. Principally, he is aware of he has already proven he had the wherewithal to come back by way of to triumph in what was a really cagy, topsy-turvy race, the place Roglič himself got here near catastrophe due to a mechanical within the closing, crunch, mountain time trial on Monte Lussari.
Roglič confirms he may additionally draw inspiration from different previous milestone moments in his profession arising within the Italian Grand Tour. The Giro was the primary Grand Tour he noticed as an novice on the roadside, for one factor – first heading throughout the border to look at Rigoberto Uran win an Alpine stage in 2013, then going to a close-by Slovenian city the place the groups had been staying that night time and crossing paths with Cadel Evans.
The Giro was additionally the place he first raced as a Grand Tour chief, too and took his first Grand Tour race lead, within the opening stage of 2019 after successful the ferociously troublesome uphill Bologna TT at Madonna di San Luca. Final however not least, the Giro was the place he took his first Grand Tour stage, additionally a time trial, again in 2016.
“All of that provides me a little bit of motivation,” Roglič agrees, “however I attempt to discover that further motivation in every part. I attempt to discover it daily, one thing to make it a bit nicer, and once I’m doing the Giro, positively that motivation is there.
“Typically it feels loopy that I am even there, however then the second feeling I’ve is it is good, no matter. I will be racing there with Jan and we’ll positively do a very good race.”
As for whether or not he win it, Roglič confirms he has precisely the identical reply as again in 2019 earlier than he began. “It is true, it is potential – for everybody, that is the great level of it. However the worst – or not so good level – is that we begin from zero. So all of us must show ourselves – and the perfect one wins.”
It may well’t be forgotten, both, that Roglič will not be the one prime identify in Crimson Bull’s Giro roster. The presence of a former Giro winner and podium finisher like Jai Hindley along with different main heavyweights like Dani Martínez, second final yr and a few notable up-and-coming Italian climbers corresponding to Giulio Pellizzari will permit Bora to play a really offensive sport with a number of choices ought to they should, Tratnik factors out. However it goes with out saying, too, that Roglič is the undisputed trump card.
“The crew will probably be actually sturdy within the Giro,” Tratnik concludes. “The mountain help is admittedly sturdy and for the flat and hilly phases we’ve got a very good group that is properly related. I am actually trying ahead to racing there, and I do know I understand how a lot simpler it’s when you might have a roster of eight sturdy guys.”
“We should not be afraid of anyone, we have been working daily right here for the Giro. And now it is time we pin on the numbers and begin racing.”
As for the ultimate victory? Properly, to cite somebody who is aware of rather a lot about successful it, it is potential.
