Roglic reflects on turning points in his cycling career: "I don't have any bad feelings about it"

After another streak of bad luck at the Tour de France, Primoz Roglic sorted things out in his debut year with Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at the Vuelta a España. It was the fourth time in his career that he managed to win the Vuelta a España. According to an interview with Kristjan Vreček, a former Slovenian mountain biker, the road to those four overall wins was long and unexpected. In it, Roglic reflects on the essential moments that ultimately made his cycling career.

Ski jumping is what the 34-year-old Slovenian mainly did in his youth years. He was good at that: in 2007, he won the world junior title with the Slovenian team. After a bad crash in 2011, the Slovenian focused on cycling during his rehabilitation. His cycling career began in 2013 with Adria Mobil, a Slovenian Conti team. "I didn't want to get paid there," Roglic remembers. "I didn't even dream of racing then, and I didn't know anyone in cycling. I only watched races on TV and saw how professional cycling was. It was crazy, but I thought it was something I could do."

Despite telling the sports director of the Slovenian team that he didn't want money and just wanted a bike to "try out" cycling, he still got paid. "My first salary was 300 euros." That was the beginning. After three years at Adria Mobil, Roglic moved to LottoNL-Jumbo in 2016. "I didn't hesitate to sign there because I didn't know anything. If you don't know what to expect and don't care, you just do it. Then you overcome the challenges that come your way," the four-time Vuelta winner explained his motivation.

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Giro d'Italia 2016 was turning point for Roglic: "Realized I could also ride a time trial"

Roglic rode his first grand Tour with the Dutch team in 2016, namely the Giro d'Italia. That Giro d'Italia would eventually prove to be a turning point. "I was second in the prologue in Apeldoorn, just behind Tom Dumoulin. At that moment, I realized that I could also ride a time trial and felt that maybe I could do more than that." Nine days after that prologue, he won stage nine of the Giro, again a time trial. "I think that was the turning point," Roglic said.

What might be a (negative) turning point for other riders, losing the Tour de France on the last day is not the case for Roglic. In the 2020 Tour, the Slovenian led proudly after 19 stages and only had to survive the final time trial on the Planche des Belles Filles. He was defeated by compatriot Tadej Pogacar, who secured his first overall victory in the Tour with a superb time trial. Despite the mental blow, Roglic did not allow that problematic day to throw him off balance. "I didn't even think about changing anything because I don't have any bad feelings about it either. It was the best I could get, and that's okay," Roglic concluded in a down-to-earth manner.