"His numbers are still getting better" - Primoz Roglic and BORA on Tadej Pogacar
Cycling
Primoz Roglic will headline Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe's 2025 ever-growing lineup and will be doing what Tadej Pogacar did this past year: The Giro-Tour double. At the start of the season he's talked about his form, Tadej Pogacar, and was compared to Mark Cavendish by his sports director.
"We signed a bunch of strong guys. Putting all the best guys on paper at one race, it's necessary that will work, then you need to connect all these pieces together. I'm looking forward to the season and spending more time together on the bike, to get to know each other and build trust between us," Roglic said in words to Cyclingnews. The German team has signed tons of quality riders this season, but mostly for the classics. The Slovenian however has his former right-hand man Jan Tratnik back alongside him, and this should be the case at both Giro d'Italia and Tour de France.
"The goal is just to reach my best shape. The results will be what they will be. All the other best guys will go, you know, but looking at myself, what I can strive for is to try to build myself into the best Primož that there was," he says, leaving everything open.
At the team training camp he began to build on his serious form towards the 2025 season, and will make his racing debut next week at the Volta ao Algarve where he will battle none other than Jonas Vingegaard in the fight for the overall classification. But Tadej Pogacar he will likely only face at the Tour de France.
Rold Aldag believes that Roglic's compatriot won't be any easier to compete against: "We still feel, importantly, like he's still getting better and still improving. There's no thought that we're on the top of the hill and now everything is about trying to slow down the downhill – we don't feel like this".
"Also, to my understanding from the performance team, his numbers are still getting better and that's good to see," he says. "What we don't have an influence on is what is Tadej going to do, and what Jonas is going to do".
On Roglic, the German DS commented on and said that he is quite a special charachter, but someone who is well capable of leading the team - in 2025 "Sometimes, he builds a wall and it's just really difficult to look over that wall. But if he opens up, he has something to say, that is very valid to the staff and to his teammates".
"Well, as you know, I worked with Mark Cavendish so I can tell you I went to bigger highs and deeper lows with him as well. That's why I'm still quite relaxed about Primoz. If you think it's going bad, then you can think back on some of the days with Cav".
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- Funny that they shorten women’s races but have no qualms about letting U23 do the same distances.Jumpyjohn23-03-2025
- Why is that relevant when discussing speed?Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- But he wasn’t the only one ;-)Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- Obviously the questions are more important to some here than to them or the team so I suggest looking for answers instead of asking questions between ourselves. We’ll probably get them unless someone actually goes to ask the protagonists themselves. Here are some starters : They like riding together; they have their own rivalry that helps bring out the best in both; they might get more points helping each other compared to racing separate races. In any case, unless we hear MJ complaining about it, I don’t think it’s going to change, it’s the Sepp Kuss syndrome all over again, fans lobbying against the will of the rider.Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- Mine goes to MVDP for entertaining us all year round :-) Stellar race, Ganna impressive in his own way as many predicted after some oddly lacklustre times.Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- i remember when not too long ago mathieu was regarded as a real tactical knucklehead. i’m not sure that was ever quite accurate, but it’s certainly the case that over the years he has become a real master tactician. in the biggest races, van der poel rarely makes choices that don’t fully optimize every specific advantage he has.OCexile23-03-2025
- Whatever the result, I believe the strategy by UAE to launch Pogacar was absolutely the right one. Unfortunately, they just were not able to execute it the way they must have planned, being all over the place at the start of the Cipressa.Cooldude23-03-2025
- They are without doubt not just the best two classics riders of this generation, but amongst the best of all time. MvdP is more suited to MSR and PR (which Pog has yet to race), while Pog is now almost untouchable at LBL and Lombardia. RVV is the only one where both basically have an equal chance to win.Cooldude23-03-2025
- bravissima!
maria2024202423-03-2025 - According to Tadej's Strava upload, he went up the Cipressa at an average speed of 37.6kph. Rocket ship! He did the 5.63km verified 'Cipressa' Strava segment in 8:59 minutes, which has a 4.3% average grade and total elevation gain of 229m. Naturally, he got the Strava KOM.Pogboom23-03-2025