"Comparable to Julian Alaphilippe" - How Marc Lamberts coached Primoz Roglic from a puncheur to a five-time Grand Tour winner

Primoz Roglic is one of the riders in the top of the cycling world with the most unusual past, having come from ski jumping and made his pro debut at a time where currently riders already have monuments and Grand Tours in their palmarès. Marc Lamberts, long-term coach of the Slovenian, goes through some of the ups and downs in all these years and how Roglic has evolved into a Grand Tour winner.

“I immediately saw the potential to win great races, but of course not that he would win five Grand Tours. When I got to know him, he was more of an explosive type, comparable to Julian Alaphilippe," Lamberts said in an interview with Wielerflits. “Sports manager Frans Maassen had been tipped off by a Slovenian ex-trainer of Roglič. ‘Keep an eye on him. There is potential in him’ he said. The man had not exaggerated.”

And immediately from his first training camp back in 2016 it became evident that the potential was there for a great rider. “We already knew a bit about who we were at the first training camp. During a so-called ‘field test’, where after a few blocks on a slope you go all in, he came up together with Robert Gesink. And were we surprised. Robert is not just anyone. That little boy from a continental team immediately took such a test"-

He would then win his first World Tour race at the Giro d'Italia that year, a race in which seven years later he would conquer the pink jersey. But inbetween there were lots of obstacles, and lots of heartbreaks specially at the Tour de France. “You don’t just create a bond through all the victories, but especially through the non-victories and all the ‘shit’ we’ve experienced. I’m thinking of starting to rebuild after crashes or the Tour de France that we lost on the last day in the time trial (2020 Planche des Belles Filles, ed.). That’s how you forge a serious connection. There’s a tremendous amount of trust and respect, in both directions.”

Roglic's evolution came a lot as a result of Visma's desire to become a Grand Tour-focused team, a plan which ultimately worked to perfection. “We made those plans together, when Visma | Lease a Bike wanted to try to win a Grand Tour. Primoz had the potential, a very high VO2-Max. But the aerobic threshold that is so important for classification riders, was not that high. Still higher than Jurgen Van den Broeck (who catapulted Lamberts to third place in the Tour de France in 2010, ed.), but still…”

And the 'puncheur' Roglic became Grand Tour specialist Roglic. “Over the years we have worked hard together to build that [aerobic power] up bit by bit through endurance training. Year after year we kept an eye on that, and it kept increasing. His pace that he can maintain for half an hour and longer, had to be better. That worked out. What he used to do was follow, follow, follow. And if he was still there in the last five hundred meters, he would win. But racing is different".

"With the same profile as five years ago, he would no longer be riding in the top 5 in a Grand Tour," Lamberts assures however, being clear that constant evolution is necessary, specially at an age where the top riders in the sport continue to put on stronger and stronger performances.

“I always said that I wanted to stop together with Primoz. Wout is a few years younger, so that would have been difficult with him. I was ready for another challenge anyway after my time at Visma | Lease a Bike and with Primoz I got a great opportunity to stop together at Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. That is still the intention. Or at least if it were up to me. In the meantime I have said to Primoz: if you sign another year, then I see only one solution and that is to kill you," he joked.