Coming into this yr’s Tour de France, Primož Roglič was thought-about one-quarter of the ‘huge 4’ GC riders of this period of biking. Along with Remco Evenepoel, Tadej Pogačar and two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard, they’ve gained 10 out of the final 14 Grand Tours.
For 2024, Roglič made the transfer away from the Grand Tour juggernaut of Visma Lease a Bike in favour of pastures new at Bora-Hansgrohe. The transfer introduced with it an entire change of kit and the Slovenian star switched from Cervélo to Specialized.
It was solely simply earlier than the Tour de France obtained underway that the Bora-Hansgrohe workforce formally revealed its new title and package, turning into Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe. The transfer noticed the Austria-based power drink producer change into a majority stakeholder within the workforce, bringing with it its eye-catching branding.
This transfer not solely introduced with it a brand new package for the riders, but in addition a brand new paint scheme for the bikes. During the opening phases of this yr’s Tour de France, we obtained our arms on Roglič’s bike to take a more in-depth take a look at the Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8 that he can be hoping to offer him wings when the race heads into the mountains.
Weighing a mere 30 grams over the UCI’s minimal weight restrict of 6.8 kilos, the bike actually gained’t be holding Roglič again. The bike can also be fitted with Specialized’s newest and best Roval Rapide CLX II Team wheels that upon their launch the model stated have been, “the quickest race wheels on the planet.”
With just one mountain take a look at below his belt thus far at this yr’s Tour, the type of Roglič remains to be considerably unclear. Even although he took the general victory on the Critérium du Dauphiné, he did falter on the ultimate stage, and like Evenepoel and Vingegaard, he misplaced time to Pogačar on stage 4 when the Tour de France took a short journey to the Alps on the best way out of Italy.
Much like Evenepoel and Vingegaard, Roglič is returning to his finest after the horror crash at Itulia Basque Country that noticed him abandon the race, albeit thankfully with none damaged bones.