"Being lighter doesn't mean you're a better cyclist" - Thijs Zonneveld believes Primoz Roglic has become too skinny for his own good
Cycling
Of the big four, it seems that it is Primoz Roglic who has drawn the shortest match in the first week of Tour de France. The Slovenian four-time Grand tour winner made a much discussed move from Visma | Lease a Bike to Bora - hansgrohe (now Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) last winter and half a year later, it seems like some things still need to click.
It's not the first time in 2024 that doubts about Roglic's level arise. Journalist Thijs Zonneveld already noticed things were slightly different at Critérium du Dauphiné. Roglic managed to win the race only with a great effort after not being able to follow Matteo Jorgenson on the final stage. "We talked about Roglic being so sharp, so thin, in the Dauphiné," Zonneveld says in his In het Wiel podcast.
Within his old team Team Visma | Lease a Bike, that will not have come as a surprise. "I also understood afterwards that at Visma they had to protect Roglic from losing another kilo. That they said: we are not going to do that. You have to keep eating this and that to maintain this weight. Roglic often wanted to lose a kilo."
At BORA-hansgrohe they might have done it differently. "It seems that they did succeed at Bora. And maybe he's even lighter. But that doesn't mean you're a better cyclist. In the past, we all thought that everything would be fine if you just became lighter, but today's cycling also requires explosiveness. You have to have that in you. I can actually see that going wrong quickly with Roglic. I think it's a risk."
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I think Roglic is fine. He's simply not good enough to win without a superteam as he could never win the TdF at his peak ages with a superteam either. It's great that he's this good at his age. He's simply not as good as Pogi and Jonas
It's always a trade off. Power and acceleration vs endurance and climbing.
Being light helps with acceleration and heat management. I'm guessing most of the power he's lost is simply due to his age.
Without being lighter he cant match Pogi. SO he is pulling all stops out
it's more like an opportunity. which as all others, comes with a risk. we watch
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- That made me smile Suipedali. Nice one!Cyclingsbestfan14-03-2025
- Even if Pogi has 5s on top of Poggio, he's getting caught on descent unfortunately. And it's extremely unlikely that he will have morevappaxbipmv14-03-2025
- If Pogi can drop him, then he will winabstractengineer14-03-2025
- In that sense, those two have less in common than the link you could make between demonstrators, right handers, Hinault and Merckx.Mistermaumau14-03-2025
- "He apparently thought it was completely fine." Nothing broken and no concussion, that's as completely fine as it gets in cyclingvappaxbipmv14-03-2025
- Better safe than sorry. At least his injuries are a lot less severe than they were last year.
santiagobenites14-03-2025 - Well spotted :-)Mistermaumau14-03-2025
- One thing Jonas Vingegaard has in common with Hinault is that they are moaners, although I couldn't see Jonas giving a demonstrator a right hander!Suipedali14-03-2025
- They are surprisingly rare on the pro circuit, around our area, one in four races finishes of with a really steep 500m climb at the end.Mistermaumau14-03-2025
- Give him an uphill sprint, then he may win against pure sprinters.
KerisVroom14-03-2025