The stakes are excessive for Primož Roglič on this yr’s Vuelta a España. The Slovenian arrives on the race after fracturing his again in a crash on the Tour de France, and the ache from his heavy fall in July nonetheless lingers.
Purely by way of information, a fourth general victory would put the 34-year-old on a stage footing with probably the most profitable ever Vuelta rider Roberto Heras, who received his residence Grand Tour in 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2005.
However, Grand Tour success not often comes simply to Roglič, and a triumph within the 2024 Vuelta could be no exception to that rule. No one doubts the previous ski jumper’s big expertise on two wheels. But there are many query marks surrounding the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe chief’s capability to carry out at his most following his Tour harm.
Yet no less than till occasions on the street show in any other case – and Saturday’s opening time trial will present the primary actual clue relating to his situation – Roglič stays the important thing reference level for all of the Vuelta contenders for now.
With that in thoughts, Cyclingnews has run the rule over Roglič’s pathway to being probably the most profitable Vuelta a Esapaña rider within the present peloton – and why, after Roglič’s victories in Spain in 2019, 2020 and 2021, Tadej Pogačar may not be the one Slovenian making Grand Tour historical past in 2024.
2019: A breakthrough win
When Cyclingnews interviewed Primoz Roglič just a few days earlier than the beginning of the 2019 Vuelta a España, sitting on a barstool within the sweltering scorching faculty classroom that had been roped in by the organisation for pre-race chats, Roglič proved an much more laconic interviewee than normal.
But it was notable, too, that after a fourth place within the Tour in 2018 and a runner’s up spot within the 2019 Giro d’Italia, Roglic didn’t beat across the bush about his objectives for his first ever Spanish Grand Tour. Sure, the man might need been perched on a barstool when he talked: however he definitely wasn’t within the temper for any sort of pub banter.
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“I wish to win and I’m going to attempt to win,” Roglič, down as a co-leader for the Vuelta a España that yr alongside teammates George Bennett and Steven Kruisjwijk: mentioned categorically and easily when requested about his objectives.
“The podium is a pleasant place, however I’ve already finished that on the Giro. I wish to struggle as laborious as attainable to win.” However, he performed down the concept that he was the highest favorite for outright victory in 2019, merely saying: “Everybody begins from zero on Saturday.”
In Jumbo-Visma’s case, in truth, Roglič’s then-team barely began the 2019 Vuelta’s opening TTT earlier than they discovered themselves heading to someplace lower than zero. Seemingly inconsequential by way of its brief distance by means of the streets of Torrevieja, midway by means of the time trial no fewer than 4 of their riders have been introduced down by water gushing downhill, from – of all issues – a burst youngsters’s paddling pool located a full 500 metres away.
The thriller of fairly how such a small pool might wreak such liquid mayhem was by no means resolved. But in any case, the impact of the water spillage was what it was: Roglič and nominal co-leader Kruijswijk have been two of the 4 riders to fall, alongside Neilson Powless and Lennard Hofstede. Although no person was critically injured, the entire workforce misplaced 40 seconds to winners Astana because of this.
‘How I misplaced the Vuelta due to a leaking paddling pool’ would have made for an attention-grabbing chapter title in any future hypothetical biography for Roglič. But in truth, the Slovenian subsequently managed to regular the ship in fashion with a relentless rise in direction of the higher reaches of the Vuelta GC.
Sixth place within the summit end within the distant astronomy commentary publish at Javalambre, second within the ultra-steep Mas de la Costa inland in Valencia, and above all third place on the crunch, hail-lashed, Andorra stage of Cortals d’Encamp noticed Roglič transfer into second general behind Nairo Quintana by the Vuelta’s first relaxation day.
And from then on, the 2019 Vuelta belonged to Roglič. His knock-out first Vuelta stage win got here within the time trial spherical Pau, France, a rolling affair moderately than venturing into the close by Pyrenees, however results-wise with the identical impact as a lone assault to a summit end. On stage 10 Slovenian not solely pushed his closest GC opponent, one Tadej Pogačar, right into a 1:30 deficit, but in addition knocked Quintana, the 2016 Vuelta winner out of the highest spot general by a mere 3:06.
Ascents as laborious because the Machuchos and the Alto de Acebo – a daily characteristic of the Alto de Acebo – then got here and went, but it surely was clear who was in command. The solely actual moments of doubt got here within the type of shock setbacks within the third week: first on the featureless flatlands round Guadalajara, when Soudal-QuickStep staged a mass assault and Quintana moved as much as 2:24 general, after which when Roglič was caught up in a crash simply as Movistar have been attacking on stage 19, However, maybe probably the most harmful of all got here on the ultimate main ascent of the race, the Plataforma de Gredos, the place Pogačar unleashed a long-distance assault that pressured Movistar, operating second general with an getting older Alejandro Valverde, onto the defensive.
Had Pogačar’s transfer been much more profitable, it would – would possibly – have seen him wrench the Vuelta lead from Roglič on the final. As it was, Movistar saved a lid on Pogačar, who needed to accept taking his third stage win of the race and booting Quintana off the Vuelta podium to say third general in Madrid. Meanwhile Roglič, terse and incommunicative as race chief to a degree the place one Spanish journalist snappily requested him immediately, “Are you really blissful?” throughout a 3rd week press convention, stayed out of bother and dominated supreme all the way in which to Madrid.
As such, 2019 proved to be a Vuelta of firsts: Roglic’s first Grand Tour win, the primary ever for Slovenia, too, and the primary Grand tour podium end for Pogačar, standing because the rider to beat of the longer term out with three stage victories and third general.
2020: The COVID-19 Vuelta a España
The pandemic might hardly be described as acquainted territory for anyone, however one of many least anticipated results was that it managed to create some vastly memorable Grand Tours. The last-minute drama started with Roglič being defeated by Pogačar within the Tour de France’s ultimate TT and continued with Tao Geoghegan Hart seeing off Jai Hindley on the ultimate day of the Giro d’Italia. As for the Vuelta, held in a cold autumn throughout a Spain within the throes of a return to COVID-19 lockdown, the race witnessed Roglic declare his hardest fought of all three general Vuelta victories thus far.
By that time within the revamped biking calendar, following his lack of yellow within the Tour, Roglič was on the hunt for sporting revenge. In a diminished model of the Vuelta as a consequence of worldwide COVID-19 restrictions, the race skipped three deliberate preliminary levels within the Netherlands to begin within the Basque Country with a summit end on the legendary Mount Arrate. Roglič wasted no time in laying down a marker by sprinting to victory on the rainsoaked summit.
At that time, the Vuelta appeared like a finished deal for a second yr operating. Instead, the rider who completed simply behind Roglič, 2019 Giro d’Italia Richard Carapaz, proved greater than capable of give the Slovenian an actual run for his cash.
The race turned out to be an actual thriller, with Roglič and Carapaz going neck-and-neck within the subsequent summit end at Laguna Negra de Vinuesa on stage 4, just for Roglič to hit necessary bother within the Pyrenean foothills on stage 6.
Caught behind after he opted to placed on a rainjacket in more and more tough climate at precisely the unsuitable second, Jumbo-Visma managed to pull Roglič again to the principle pack. As a consequence, on the continuously undulating method roads to the lengthy, grinding ultimate ascent to Formigal, Jumbo discovered themselves critically depleted in numbers to again their chief. So when Carapaz and Movistar piled on the strain and cut up the peloton, neither the workforce nor their chief Roglič, caught behind, had an actual reply.
History was not in Roglič’s favour both, as he discovered himself combating for GC survival on the identical climb the place an ambush cast by Alberto Contador wrecked Chris Froome’s possibilities of victory within the 2016 Vuelta.
This time spherical, even when he was as remoted from his teammates as Froome 5 years beforehand, Roglič was capable of restrict the injury much better. But he nonetheless ended the day 43 seconds down on Carapaz – and out of the Vuelta lead. As Jumbo sports activities director Grischa Niermann put it together with his attribute bluntness afterwards, “We made an enormous mistake. But we nonetheless have the time trial in our favour.”
Roglič’s fightback started with a scintillating duel towards Carapaz on the little-known however deeply punishing ascent of Moncalvillo in northern Spain, set to be revisited on this yr’s Vuelta. Then, after a sneak assault on the seemingly inoffensive uphill end to Suances gave Roglič a second 2020 Vuelta stage victory, the 2 discovered themselves tied on time on GC. However, higher placings meant the lead teetered again into Roglič’s favour, just for Carapaz to then drop the Slovenian on the mythically steep Angliru, and return to the lead for a second time.
Neither rider appeared able to shaking off the opposite, even when the opening third week time trial, culminating in an uphill end at Ezaro in deepest rural Galicia, as soon as once more put Roglič again on high general with a 40 second benefit on Carapaz. Yet that was far too slender a niche for the Slovenian to make sure of success and on the uncovered roads of the Alto de la Covatilla on stage 20, a last-minute drama got here inside a whisker of turning the tables in Carapaz’s favour for good.
High on the empty, windswept plateau roads resulting in the ski station of Covatilla, the Ecuadorian launched an all-out ultimate assault. Isolated from his workforce once more, Roglič appeared to be in severe difficulties, solely getting some short-term respite with backing from the one Jumbo rider within the break of the day, Lennard Hofstede. But then in a rare growth, the Slovenian was capable of lock onto the again wheel of Movistar riders Enric Mas and Marc Soler, limiting the gaps. When he crossed the road, Roglič had held onto his lead by simply 24 seconds on Carapaz, and with it, a second Vuelta a España was within the bag.
The backstory relating to Carapaz and Roglic’s surprising ‘serving to hand’ from a rival workforce rumbled on lengthy after Roglič had celebrated one other general win in Spain – one by which his bonus seconds taken on levels, totalling 48 seconds performed no small half.
Then there was the entire Covatilla query: individuals have been fast to do not forget that Carapaz’s exit from Movistar for Ineos on the finish of 2019 had been something however simple, given he was a late non-selection for the Vuelta lineup that yr after racing a criterium with out his workforce’s permission. Conspiracy theories thus abounded that he had been ‘punished’ by Movistar on the Covatilla, though officialy the workforce mentioned their riders had been unaware that Roglič was on their wheel on stage 20.
Whatever the reality such rumours actually held, Roglič had his title within the document books. He not solely grew to become the primary rider to take two consecutive Vueltas since Roberto Heras (coincidentally from the city of Bejar on the foot of the Covatilla) took three in a row between 2003 and 2005. For the second yr operating, Roglič was additionally the one rider to safe podium finishes in two Grand Tours, and, after his Liège-Bastogne-Liège win, the primary to take a Grand Tour and Monument in the identical yr since Laurent Jalabert received the Vuelta and Milan-San Remo in 1995.
Roglič’s second Vuelta was additionally, regrettably, particular as a result of it was a race with – and towards – the pandemic. Although no riders examined constructive within the Vuelta itself, COVID-19 was all the time been a troubling, fixed presence, proper all the way down to the restrictions and confinements throughout Spain, and, in fact, the shortage of public on the large climbs. But lastly, the Vuelta made it by means of.
“Getting this race to the end is an achievement for every one in every of us. Everything went nicely. Everything labored,” Roglič mentioned afterwards. “An enormous due to the organisation and everyone concerned who made this attainable. We can see on the planet it’s a extremely dangerous state of affairs however we nonetheless might do some racing and perhaps produce some constructive information on the finish of the day.”
2021: Easier than ever
After all of the nailbitingly shut racing of 2020, Roglič’s third and most up-to-date Vuelta a España victory was by far his most simple. A triumph within the opening time trial in entrance of Burgos cathedral meant that for the second yr operating, he began the Vuelta in the identical manner that he had ended the earlier one – within the lead. From there, Roglič’s place merely received stronger and stronger.
Having briefly ‘loaned’ out the chief’s jersey to Rein Taaramae and, after an enormous late crash, Kenny Elissonde within the first week, Roglič’s beautiful ascent of the brutally steep ascent to Cullera in jap Valencia allowed him to regain la roja as soon as extra. Second place on the interminable slopes of Velefique within the deserts of south-east Spain boosted his lead slightly additional, however the place Roglič actually started to crowbar the race in his favour was on a seemingly inoffensive cat. 2 climb on the opening stage of the second week.
Letting a big break up the street of non-GC threats ensured that he could be out of crimson, and irksome post-stage podium and media obligations for no less than so far as the mountains of northern Spain. At the identical time as he was enjoying one very predictable recreation, Roglič concurrently tore up the script by attacking close to the summit of the cat 2 Almachar climb and soloing away down the treacherous roads to the coastal end city of Rincón de la Victoria.
While a crash midway down the greasy, spiralling descent might have spelled curtains for Roglič’s GC bid, fortunately he might shortly remount and proceed unscathed. The ensuing delay did imply Movistar GC duo Enric Mas and Miguel Angel Lopez might regain contact. But there was no such chance of getting again within the recreation for Ineos challengers Egan Bernal and Adam Yates, already too far distanced when Roglič attacked. But greater than the gaps what mattered above all, was the convenience with which Roglič had extracted himself from the sector in such unpromising terrain: face with such superiority, there was little hope for the remaining.
The methods by which Roglič then alternated between demolishing the opposition and maintaining them firmly below his thumb on every key stage continued to be as diversified because it was entertaining – no less than for the followers. There was his finely calculated outpowering of Enric Mas for a stage win on the ‘side-of-the-house’ end at Valdepeñas de Jaén, Spain’s equal of the Mur de Huy.
Then there was the informal crushing of a transfer by the firebrand Miguel Angel Lopez at Pico Villuercas by means of the sierras de Guadalupe on stage 14 and the equally uneventful snuffing out of repeated digs by Adam Yates en path to El Barraco within the Sierras of Ávila on stage 15. There was his decided late cost at stage 18 to El Gamoniteuru in Asturias to knock out just a few extra seconds on all bar López. Then at the same time as Lopez was seemingly in search of probably the most dramatic abandon from the race attainable on stage 20, Roglič made the identical final kilometre transfer once more.
But the stage that confirmed what was already a digital certainty got here on probably the most emblematic climb of all the Vuelta, to Lagos de Covadonga. After opting to comply with a courageous transfer Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) some 60 kilometres out, Roglič then shed the Colombian from his again wheel half manner up the ultimate ascent to go solo to the end. Cycling legend all the time had it that whoever was within the Vuelta lead by the summit of Covadonga – a end deep within the Picos de Europa, and residential, too, to among the final wolves in western Europe – could be in crimson come the general end of the Vuelta, too. And in Roglič’s case, as he returned to the lead he had ‘loaned’ to the then Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert racer Christian Odd Eiking every week earlier than, the legend appeared all however sure to turn into actuality, once more, significantly as a sure Sepp Kuss, then his teammate, positioned second that day, 1:35 again.
Put merely, the opposition had been flattened as soon as once more. By the time the race reached Santiago de Compostela 5 days later, Roglič was greater than residence free in his bid for a 3rd Vuelta a España win. He wrapped it up with a ultimate time trial victory within the streets of the Galician capital too, ending the 2021 Vuelta precisely because it had started, with one other TT win in entrance of a cathedral and with Roglič in crimson once more.
While his ultimate victory margin of 4:42 over Mas was the biggest, too, in 24 years since Alex Zulle completed greater than 5 minutes forward of Fernando Escartin in 1997, by this level Roglič was racing towards the historical past books. Victory quantity three meant he joined Tony Rominger, Alberto Contador and Robert Heras to overcome the Spanish Grand Tour as triple winners of the race.
“Hopefully the older you’re, the happier you’re,” he joked to reporters. “And I like this race, it offers me lovely recollections that I’ll have for my entire life.”
Quite other than the statistics, what was equally spectacular was that the Vuelta 2021 was one more comeback after a serious blow within the Tour de France. While 2020 had been largely to do with overcoming the psychological impression of dropping biking’s greatest race within the final attainable day, a yr later the Vuelta was extra about recovering from the bodily fallout of a foul crash and subsequent accidents within the Tour. Either manner, the ultimate consequence was the identical: Roglič was there, again in crimson once more, within the Vuelta España
No sooner did he appear to be able to dominate the Vuelta for so long as h happy than issues turned awry. The 2022 Vuelta, although, couldn’t have ended extra in another way for Roglič, culminating in a freak crash on the end of a transition stage within the third week. Then in 2023, workforce techniques and an excellent efficiency by Sepp Kuss prevented him as soon as once more from opting to strive for a fourth record-equalling title.
What the 2024 Vuelta will deliver for Roglič – and his rivals – very a lot stays to be seen. But no matter occurs, his journey from that barstool someplace in an nameless classroom someplace in south-east Spain again in August 2019 will stay nothing lower than exceptional – and a key a part of Vuelta a España historical past.
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