2023-05-30 08:09:36
Unlike Tadej Pogacar (UAE), Primoz Roglic (Jumbo) is not a pure talent. The winner of the Giro d’Italia is the product of an iron will. He began practicing ski jumping at the age of 8 and in 2006 he was world youth team champion with Slovenia, a team that included, among others, Mitja Meznar, the man who pushed him when his chain fell off while climbing to Mount Lussari on Saturday. In 2011, at the age of 22, he stopped flying on skis and showed up at a cycling club in Ljubljana saying that he wanted to be a professional.
They told him that he would have to pay for everything, including the bike, and that it would cost him about 5,000 euros. They thought they would never see him again, but after three months he returned with a Willier and the rest of the money, a part lent by his father and another, saved with a job in a supermarket.
His fame as an international ski jumper and his spectacular physical parameters opened the doors of the Adria Continental for him a year later. He fell every day. He couldn’t even eat in the races, because if he let go of the handlebars he would go to the ground. More than running, he engaged in battles with himself. Until today, falls are a problem for Roglic. Without going any further, in the last Tour of Spain he had to retire after crashing when he was engaged in the fight for the general with Remco Evenepoel.
Since he launched his career in Euskadi with two stage wins in Itzulia in 2017 to return in 2018 and win the general classification, his career has been relentless. That same year he would win Romandie and a stage of the Tour. He was fourth in Paris. Since 2019, he has contested nine Grand Tours. He has had to abandon two Tours and one Vuelta due to falls, and in the other six he has been on the podium. Four victories, three Vueltas and this Giro, a second place in the 2020 Tour and a third in the 2019 Giro.
His record includes 74 victories and outside the big ones he is also flashy. He has won Tirreno-Adriatico, Itzulia and Romandie twice, as well as Paris-Nice, Dauphiné and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. He is an Olympic time trial champion.
Do not rule out the Tour
Roglic does not rule out running the Tour, although in principle he was going to play the Tour. I don’t know yet, but never say never. I want to have a little vacation and then I’ll decide. I don’t want to stress out.”
The Jumbo would be seriously considering the possibility of taking him to France to help Jonas Vingegaard in his fight against Pogacar. Those responsible for the Dutch team calculate that the numerical superiority that Roglic would bring at key moments is the best guarantee available to him to challenge the leader of the UAE.
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