In an era where Grand Tour overall battles seem to be dominated by the young, Primož Roglič stands out. He is the only rider who has stood on the top step of the podium in his 30s at any of the revered three-week races during the last six years. Still, the Slovenian certainly isn’t weighed down by the rise of a new generation, in fact, he seems invigorated by it.
After nearly a decade in the WorldTour, it’s the challenge of keeping pace with the evolution of the sport that helps keep the four-time Vuelta a España winner and 2023 Giro d’Italia victor coming back for more.
"This is something added, it attracts me, I would say," said Roglič in a group interview, including Cyclingnews, that took place earlier this month before the Tour de France Saitama Criterium. "I don't really need to, on the other hand, win any one race to say that will change my career because I'm really happy with everything that I’ve achieved but still [there’s] always challenges that can push you forward."
There has certainly been no standing still for the rider who switched to Bora-Hansgrohe at the start of 2024, a team which revealed ever-building aspirations with the mid-season introduction of Red Bull as a major sponsor.
The shift to a new squad has been just one of the litany of changes the 35-year-old has faced in recent seasons, with Roglič also pointing out just how much the WorldTour had altered since 2019 when he last was in Japan to participate in the Saitama Tour de France criterium. It's not just a different generation, but a different way of racing altogether.
"So what is a challenge to me, is just to still be going with these steps of the younger generation … to try to adapt to this kind of way, style of racing," said Roglič.
Best version of yourself
Chief among that new generation that is driving the changes in style is of course his compatriot, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), who is providing a considerable obstacle for all comers, particularly any rider with Grand Tour GC aspirations.
"In the past how we were racing was mostly all the time saving, saving, saving and spending energy on some right moments or right places," said Roglič. "But nowadays, or especially in the races against him [Pogačar], every day is the day. So, yes it's from the first day and it's from the first day, 100k to go or whatever. That is the day that you are there or you can lose it.
"It's a completely different way of thinking, a completely different way of racing, of level itself. That's, I think, quite a challenge for all of us older guys that still try to achieve good results."
Not that this has dampened the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider's enthusiasm in pursuing those key results – including the biggest of them all in the form of the Tour de France. Still, he does have a healthy sense of perspective on chasing that yellow jersey that is missing from his Grand Tour collection.
"Okay, you can always say winning Tour de France because, yes, I didn't win it yet," said Roglič when asked if there was a particular target that inspired him to continue on. "I mean, it would be cool to add to my palmares but also, yes, without it we'll be all fine … the Earth will turn the same."
He speaks with evident admiration of the abilities of the rider who snatched away his journey to the top step by 59 seconds in the final stage of the 2020 edition, and is now three Tour wins in. However, even while unreservedly acknowledging Pogačar's clear superiority this season there is no defeatism evident when it comes to his regular rival and sometime national teammate.
There is instead the calm of a man who can simply see a puzzle before him that it would be nice to try and solve, delivering a sense that even if the last piece actually ends up having been lost somewhere in a crack of a couch cushion it will not diminish the satisfaction of having put as many of the pieces together as possible.
"Yes, with getting older, for sure, you are losing on some points," said a reflective Roglič as he sat in the hotel in Saitama, pausing briefly at times to warmly greet a number of his long-time WorldTour opponents as they filtered by.
"I mean it's a fact, I'm not 20 years old but on the other hand, yes, with getting older you also gain on a lot of different aspects. You are getting experiences with every year … I just always try to still to improve a bit, you know still try to be just the best version of yourself and I think that's something that drives you."
Beyond next season?
Roglič, who has secured five Grand Tour wins over the past six years, brought victory to his new team Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe at the 2024 Vuelta a España, using that aforementioned experience to put himself in red when it mattered once again.
It was certainly an achievement for the team to celebrate, as it became one of only two squads to have won a Grand Tour this season, with Pogačar already having swept up both the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France for UAE Team Emirates.
"Everything was completely new, completely different, and still the things that we achieved this year are crazy, so I'm really, really happy and proud about it," said Roglič, who also won the Critérium du Dauphiné earlier in 2024.
However, it can't have been easy to so quickly adapt to a new team after eight years with a Jumbo-Visma squad that in 2023 swept up every single Grand Tour victory, with Roglič claiming the Giro d'Italia.
"It's just different," said Roglič of his shift. "For me, I'm not really worried now thinking that the team will be successful – yes, in the future – but it's on me or [if] I want it tomorrow, to speed up these things, to try to help, to grow and to achieve for everyone the best out of ourselves – myself, the riders around but all the other aspects as well."
A result on the board at the Vuelta was undoubtedly a positive sign for the progress of this process but not so positive for Roglič was that it had once again followed the pattern of coming after disappointment at the Tour de France. Roglič's move to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe had given him the opportunity to chase yellow as an undisputed leader now that he had moved from the contender-rich squad of 2023 and 2022 Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard.
However, the curse of the crashes which had blighted him in every edition of the Tour he'd lined up at since securing his runner-up spot to Pogačar in 2020 followed Roglič to his new team. Still, just like the rise of a new generation provides motivation, so it seems, does the rotten run at the Tour de France, with three editions that finished in injury-induced DNFs not proving a deterrent or making him want to turn his sights elsewhere instead.
"If I would think like that, then probably for sure I wouldn't be a cyclist at all. I started riding the bike when I was 23 years old and it was full of challenges to come," said the former ski jumper who came to the sport of cycling relatively late.
One question, however, is how long he wants to continue to keep chasing those challenges, while having one more season at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe left on his contract and certainly not being dismissive when the question of retirement is broached. Will he want to add more seasons or could the end of 2025 be the time to walk away?
"We just want to go into the next one, and then I will see," finished Roglič.
