“Can I’ve some water please? I don’t simply at all times drink Red Bull now,” Primož Roglič requested his press workers, with a quiet grin to point out he was joking about his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe group’s newest sponsor. And that was simply one of many a number of moments of light humour in a Tour de France relaxation day press convention the place studying the important thing protagonist’s underlying temper music was, to say the least, not easy.
On the plus facet, Roglič is presently operating fourth total at 1:36. That’s the worst place of all the highest 4 pre-race favourites, his detractors will level out. But then again, it additionally means the Slovenian star is in his finest place total on a primary Tour relaxation day since he was in yellow on stage 9 again in 2020, popping out of the Pyrenees.
In 2021, on the similar level within the Tour, the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe chief was already residence, having deserted attributable to a number of unhealthy crashes within the first tumultuous week by the hills of Brittany. In 2022, he’d already come down closely in a foul crash on the cobbles of Roubaix and was nursing a number of accidents, previous to a post-Alps abandon. As for 2023, Roglic wasn’t even within the race, opting as an alternative for the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España.
Instead this 12 months on the Tour’s first relaxation day, it was Roglič’s teammate Aleksandr Vlasov who needed to stop due to a identified damaged ankle from a foul fall on stage 9. And Roglič, thus far unscathed himself however certainly extra aware than a few of simply how robust it’s for a rider to need to stop biking’s largest bike race early by accidents, used his opening press convention phrases to pay Vlasov fulsome tribute.
“He’s an enormous assist in the mountains, and it’s an enormous loss for our group,” Roglič stated. “He’s proven how sturdy he was in all of the races we did collectively, however ultimately these are the information. We can’t change these, it’s how it’s.”
At the identical time, given “the pace that he crashed at and the way his bike seemed, he may be fairly pleased with simply having a damaged ankle, it might have been lots worse. So we now have to take the positives from this”.
Roglič was equally decided to look on the intense facet of the primary week of racing concerning himself, too, replying to 1 journalist’s enquiry on his present state of kind as being “good, really. It’s been a very long time felt so good within the first relaxation day of the Tour”.
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“It was an intense begin, positively. We misplaced a while in Bologna, a bit extra within the Galibier, some extra within the TT, however that’s part of racing.
“Of course I at all times need to be within the entrance. But even if you find yourself in entrance and main and have one minute [time gap] or no matter it’s on the remainder, it’s nonetheless not sufficient.
“So in the meanwhile I nonetheless simply need to preserve heading in the right direction, get by the race and get into the ultimate.”
It’s true that some GC contenders like Simon Yates (Jayco-AIUIa) are in a far worse place, time-wise, than Roglič. Yet there was no getting away from the very fact, both, that on the gravel stage on Sunday it doesn’t matter what the mixture of the ‘Big Four’ riders have been attacking – and there have been loads of them – Roglič was by no means amongst their quantity.
In truth, barring the time trial the place he was briefly atop the chief’s board and managed to take three seconds on Vingegaard, up to now within the Tour, Roglič has not been a high-profile GC participant in any respect. Hence, maybe, the combined messages of his press convention.
When requested about how he felt he might redress the scenario and regain the higher hand on his rivals, Roglič appeared eager to decrease any potential sense of pressure and concurrently underline the very fact he was taking part in an extended recreation.
“When they journey a bit slower, I’ll have a bit extra of an possibility, however so long as they journey so laborious and quick, they are going to be more durable to beat,” he stated together with his basic deadpan Roglič humour, earlier than including helpfully,
“Let’s wait and see, it’s nonetheless the primary week, there are nonetheless two weeks to go.” As for what the important thing to success within the decisive third week might be, Roglič flipped that individual question again with a laconic response of: “Have the strongest legs, eh?”
The query as as to whether he was involved in regards to the potential risks of the descents on this 12 months’s Tour introduced a equally humorous response in regards to the challenges he’d confronted of one other type.
“At the second I’m fairly assured going downhill, additionally I take pleasure in it. I’ve much more issues going uphill moderately than downhill, if I’m sincere,” he concluded with a smile.
More query marks
The afternoon’s information of Roglič’s non-selection for the Olympic Games, regardless of being defending TT champion, had but to emerge when the remainder day press convention occurred. But it doesn’t matter what now occurs to Roglič in August – and he was non-commital, to say the least, about whether or not he’d attempt for a record-equalling fourth win within the Vuelta a España, which begins on the 18th of subsequent month – the Slovenian’s understated efficiency within the right here and now of the Tour is presently beneath extreme scrutiny.
In truth, it has already sparked hypothesis that he may now be combating for the rostrum in Nice moderately than outright victory.
However, in a reminder of the quiet however steely dedication that at all times characterised him, Roglič pushed again firmly in opposition to that individual thought. Regardless of what his goal is on GC, he argued that his perspective of doing in addition to potential remained the identical.
“You at all times nonetheless must be there with the perfect ones, you can not afford to say – now I’ll lose 10 minutes after which get it again.”
Be it first place, second, or tenth place that’s the aim. “If I do my finest, and the group too, then we will all have a look at ourselves within the mirror and be completely happy. Because that´s one thing we will handle and one thing we will do.”
But on the subject of what Roglič is perhaps lastly capable of obtain on this 12 months’s Tour from this level onwards, in the meanwhile the picture within the mirror appears blurrily unsure – and his relaxation day press convention did treasured little to clear away the query marks, both.
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