"Every climb you tackle is the right one, as long as you tackle it with a smile" - Primoz Roglic opens up on new podcast

Primoz Roglic needs no introduction. He has made a name for himself in the peloton over the last few years. Some time has passed since the switch from Visma - Lease a Bike to BORA - hansgrohe and Roglic is preparing for his first appearance at Paris-Nice with the new team, reason enough to invite him onto the 'Band of Brothers Podcast'.

During his early days, Roglic rode Specialized bikes, which he admits he really missed later on, so he is delighted to be back on Specialized. But how does he remember his early days? "In the early days, I tried to find out where I stood, whether I could compete against the best, whether I could be one of them. I quickly became one of them and it's nice to be able to do something you're passionate about," he says. "I remember the first race. I hadn't touched any food or drinks beforehand and had asked others what they were having, so I just tried to survive in the group until the finish."

"My second race was Coppi e Bartali, a stage race where there were a lot of big guys there, like Ivan Basso and people like that. I could hardly walk afterwards, couldn't climb stairs and wondered how these guys could do such races day after day. I could never have imagined doing a Grand Tour or anything like that. Now, a few years later, I'm one of them," he continues.

After spending many years at Conti level, Roglic wanted more and so it came to a first 'thought-provoking' meeting with the head of BORA - hansgrohe in 2015 in a beer garden in Salzburg and describes his impressions as follows. "We met in the beer garden, so I can hardly remember anything," he jokes with a laugh. "No - I'd had some good results in 2015 and tried everything to get onto the WorldTour. It was incredible to get a meeting with Ralph. They weren't a WorldTour team back then and I later had the opportunity to go to the WorldTour with Lotto. I just had to go there to see if I really belonged there."

This first meeting with Ralph Denk was also on Primoz Roglic's mind when they met again for the 2023/2024 season change, as he revealed, and he is pleased that the signing has now come about after all and hopes that they will write many more beautiful chapters together. It was also important for him to take his long-time coach Marc Lamberts with him to BORA - hansgrohe: "He was my first coach since Lottom and still is today. He knows me inside out and on the one hand it was an easier start here, but we also want to improve with the team. He can bring all his knowledge to the table."

The structure of cycling has changed since his early days, cycling has become "younger." "When I started racing, I was quite old and the experienced people were also getting older. Nowadays, we have a lot of very young riders competing at the highest level, which is great, especially when I can keep up with them as an older man."

Roglic is currently at a training camp with teammates on the volcano Teide, where he says things are going really well: "We discuss a lot of things, nutrition and so on. After breakfast we start riding, sometimes for an hour but also longer, up to seven hours. Different intervals. Training - eating - resting - repeating."

He answers a fan question collected by the team on Instagram about his favourite climb in Roglic style. "Every climb you tackle is the right one, as long as you tackle it with a smile."