“If they would ride a bit slower, the race would be more open" - Primoz Roglic in a playful mood on first Tour de France rest day

Whilst seemingly not quiet on the level of Tadej Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard so far at the 2024 Tour de France, Primoz Roglic has been using all his experience and fighting spirit to keep himself still in Maillot Jaune contention at the 2024 Tour de France reaches its first rest day.

Having scratched and clawed to keep his general classification dream alive at the Tour de France on the thrilling gravel stage on Sunday, the Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe leader was dealt a rest day blow by the abandon of his key super domestique, Aleksandr Vlasov due to a broken ankle sustained in his spectacular crash on stage 9. "Aleksandar's failure is very unfortunate, because he is very important to us," Roglic says in quotes collected by Het Nieuwsblad from his rest day press conference. "But he should actually be happy. The speed at which he went down, it could have been much worse."

On the rest of the so called Big 4 however, Roglic is aware is a little off the pace at the moment. “If they would ride a bit slower, the race would be more open," he grins in his typically dry wit. Roglic also, has not yet completely given up hope. "If they continue like this, it will be difficult to beat them. But there are still two tough weeks ahead, you have to keep believing.”

In a slight surprise, the biggest challenger to pre-race favourite Pogacar over the first week of the Tour de France, has been Remco Evenepoel. Having gone head to head with the Belgian for Grand Tour glory multiple times over the past couple of years, Roglic is well aware of the threat posed by the current time-trial world champion and former Vuelta a Espana winner. "Remco is a great champion, so I am not surprised about his strong start. In the Criterium du Dauphine he suffered badly because of his crashes, but now he is back at a high level," assesses Roglic of his rival.