Roglic on a mission to find "best possible Primoz", lets go of obsessive Red Bull role: "It was driving me crazy"

When talking to Primoz Roglic throughout the year, you often only get a joke, a brief response, and a sincere wink. However, the Slovenian rider for Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe is so much more than that, as he once again demonstrated on Saturday during an in-depth conversation with, among others, IDLProCycling.com. Now 35 years old, the accomplished rider is aiming for the Giro-Tour double in 2025, racing with a team powered by Red Bull that’s truly taking off. Roglic also spoke about being a leader, a new generation, crashes, and more.

Primoz, what have you been up to during your vacation in the past weeks?

"It was way too short, as always, but it's also nice to get back into the routine and get back on my bike every day. I've been very busy, with activities for my foundation in Slovenia and a kind of work-vacation trip to Asia. I rode in two criteriums and enjoyed a bit of vacation, that was about it. Now we are already in our first training camp, and there's a lot of meetings. With our new sponsor, it feels like we are stepping into a new team, and there's a lot of new faces. I want to get to know everyone now, because I don't really get the chance for that during the season. Then you just hang out with the same people. In December and January, it's easier to talk to others."

How is Primoz when it comes to meeting new people? Do you sit down with someone at a table, or is it just a quick handshake?

"Phew, I’m naturally shy. Normally, I’d be sitting alone, tucked away in a corner. But I’m really trying to get to know the new people because we’ll be working together. I don’t just want to know their names, but also who they are. That makes things easier down the line."

Primoz Roglic patiently answered all questions for nearly half an hour

Roglic would have liked Evenepoel on the team, acknowledges Tour de France mistakes

What do you think of all the new riders that have been signed?

"On paper, they’re strong guys, but I’ve only just met them. I’m looking forward to riding with them, and then we’ll see if all these good riders can actually work together. You need a connection, everything has to click. We need to build trust since we’ll be spending a lot of time together. I want to come across as someone who doesn’t bite."

Would you have liked Remco Evenepoel there as well?

"I’d like to have everyone, why not? But I don’t feel anything one way or the other when I hear or read rumors. So much is said and written. I only worry about the riders we’ve actually signed. There are already enough problems and things to deal with, that's where my mind is."

Do you still get the same satisfaction out of the winter time, with training camps, tests and riding?

"It’s different now though, I’m more calm. The team has told me that I’ll be doing the Giro and the Tour, so I already know when I need to be ready. With that plan, I do what I need to do. Winter isn’t the most important thing for me, I just ride my bike for five or six hours. As I said, during this period, it’s more important to get to know the team better so I can be the rider I want to be later."

Last year, you had to get to know the entire team, and now you say that it’s essentially the same situation again. Is it easier this time, compared to when you first joined?

"Yes, it is. I want to be the best, so I also want the team to be at its best. In that sense, I put a lot of energy last season into more than just cycling. What do the mechanics do? What does the chef do? That took energy I would have rather spent on my performance. Now that we have a lot more people around here, I hope to focus more on being just a rider. Let the team tell me what I need to do."

Early last year, you said that Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe needed to improve on many fronts, with nutrition being a crucial aspect. Is that true?

"Yes, definitely. We need to make strides in that area, and now we have the people to do it. But it takes time. You don’t just bring in the best people and have everything work the next day. Everything is new, so we need to put it all in the right place and make it work. Maybe it will work in 2025, or maybe it won't work until 2026. I’d like it to happen as soon as possible, but I don’t want to obsess over it. I’ve put too much energy into that, and it was driving me crazy."

Sporting director Rolf Aldag said there were so many changes and so much hard work in the first six months of last year that you would’ve been better off quitting just before the Tour de France. The weather during your altitude training was bad and you were actually ready for it. Would you agree that you did too much?

"With what we know now, yes, that’s true. But as they say, it's very easy to be smart after the war. It’s important to look back from a distance and without emotions to see how things went. We need to learn from that so we don’t make the same mistakes again. Hopefully, we’ll find ourselves in 2025."

In 2024, the focus was purely on the Tour. How are you planning your 2025 season?

"I’ll start in the Algarve, then Catalonia and the Giro. The goal is to reach my best possible form, and the results will be what they’ll be. That’s the main goal, to be the best possible Primoz."

Roglic had to adapt to Pogacar and co

How good do you think the best Primoz can be?

"Inside, I still feel like I’m 20 years old. I reached a very high level during the Vuelta last season, and I’m chasing that form again."

But how good is that? Can you compare yourself to riders like Pogacar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel?

"Phew. I raced against them a bit in the Tour, but I wasn’t at their level there. However, I also didn’t have the same form in the Tour as I did during the Vuelta. Whether I can match their level or not, I don’t really care. As long as I can do my thing the way I want, I’m happy."

Is riding the Giro d'Italia going to cost you a few percentage points in the Tour de France?

"We’ll see. We actually think it will help me reach an even better form."

We don’t know the official Giro route yet, perhaps you do. To what extent did you need to know the Giro course to choose the Tour of Italy?

"I don’t know the full course, and I don’t think the organization does either. Otherwise, they would have presented it by now. I’ve heard we’ll be passing through Slovenia, which I’m really looking forward to. I talked about it this winter in Monaco with Enrico Gasparotto (team manager, ed.), about how we're going to tackle it. We made the decision for the Giro together. It went very smoothly. If it turns out to be the wrong choice, so be it. I just wanted to do something different."

If you did the Vuelta, you could have gone for a record-breaking fifth Vuelta win. Did you consider that?

"I’ve won the Vuelta four times, and in most cases, it wasn’t even part of my original plan for the season, haha. It’s a race I rarely plan for but almost always do in the end. So, we don't need to make that official right now, right?"

You want to be the best Primoz, but of course, you also want to win. Was choosing the Giro also based on a better chance of winning there compared to the Tour?

"No, the decision wasn’t based on that. We’re looking for ways to bring out my top form. When you look at it with that view and the preparation needed for that, that is why we made the choice for the Giro."

Have you won the Tour of the Algarve before?

"Yes, in 2017! But normally, I won’t be at my best or be competitive there this time. We’ll be doing extensive testing with our aerodynamics team though, because there is a time trial in the Algarve. It’ll be a good opportunity to get to know each other better for the time trials."

If we ask people around you why you want to win, it's not for the money, for the glory or for your ego. According to them, you want to win because you have to give up so much for this sport and so you want the best possible result, to make those sacrifices worthwhile. What would you say is your motivation to win?

"I mostly just want to be myself, you know. I’ve been given a great opportunity in life, going from a ski jumper to a professional cyclist. I never thought that was possible, let alone winning races. That’s really nice, but it also comes with responsibility. So I try to be myself and do the best I can in the time I have."

Does being part of a generation that will be remembered forever mean anything to you?

"Right now, it’s definitely special. But in 200 years, we too will just be some guys who used to race bikes. It’s great, but it’s also tough being part of a sport that’s constantly changing. It's very different from 2016, the style of racing. I belong to the older generation, and that's a challenge. I have to keep going and to do that, I have to change a lot of things, to stay competitive with guys who grew up with a different mindset and different expectations. I was only getting started when I was 23, the younger guys are expected to have won a Monument and grand tour at that age."

What have you had to change to stay competitive?

"Mainly the way I race. In Grand Tours, you used to wait for the final week to make your move. Now, we race from day one. If you wait, you will be 30 minutes behind and you can forget about it. The developments in nutrition and equipment have gone so fast that the sport has evolved into what it is today. Long attacks weren't so normal in the past either, but now they are."

You haven't had to change your way of training, for example?

"Hopefully not, I’d prefer to train fewer hours, haha."

In ski jumping today, they now use airbags in their suits. Could that work in cycling?

"Maybe, yes. Cycling is dangerous, it’s getting faster and faster, and the roads are trickier. At the same time, our clothing keeps getting thinner and thinner. It would be smart to find ways to make the sport safer, although I don't know if airbags are the solution."

Have you reflected on your own crashes over the past few years in this faster peloton? Is that something you can train, staying on your bike?

"No one wants to crash, and for me, they often say I lack training in cycling. I just did so many other things, so I’d say it gives me an advantage over the others. Look at how much I’ve won. If I can continue like that, that is great."

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