Primoz Roglic has decided to wrap up his season, effective immediately, as announced by his team Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. The Slovenian was initially set to participate in the Tour of Lombardy.
In September, Roglic claimed his fourth Vuelta a España victory. He then competed in both the time trial and road race at the World Championships but was unable to contend for the medals. He also attempted to race in the Giro dell'Emilia and the Coppa Bernocchi, but in both events, he withdrew early. It was a clear sign that the determined stage racer had run out of steam.
This decision was confirmed by his team: "A long season comes to an end," Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe posted on Twitter. "Primoz and the performance staff have decided to draw a line under an exciting year and to start his off-season immediately. Join us in wishing him a good recovery and a wonderful off-season — well deserved, Primoz!"
Read more below the tweet.
Roglic dropped out of the Tour again, but made up for it in the Vuelta
Although winning the Tour of Spain alone makes him more than successful, things went wrong for Roglic yet again at the Tour de France, the race he by now has a love-hate relationship with. He crashed hard in the closing stages of stage 12, injuring his shoulder so badly that he had to abandon the race a day later. Before the crash, Roglic was still competing for the final podium. He never really competed for the overall victory, as Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, in particular, competed on a higher level.