"It’s a new chapter for Primoz Roglic and BORA-hansgrohe" - Rolf Aldag positive and optimistic ahead of Paris-Nice

This Sunday, Paris-Nice 2024 gets underway and one of the notable stories of this year's edition of the 'Race to the Sun', is the BORA-hansgrohe debut of Primoz Roglic.

“It’s going to be the first race with Primož for our team, so one very important thing will be the integration of him into the team as part of a racing situation,” BORA-hansgrohe's sports director Rolf Aldag told GCN pre-race. “We had some really good camps together and a lot of work has been done in terms of our preparation, twice at camps in Mallorca and then at altitude. Now it’s time to show that with our numbers on our jerseys. That’s a big goal for us, to take on the race, and understand each other as riders and management.”

In the battle for the general classification, Roglic will face stiff competition from the likes of Remco Evenepoel, Egan Bernal, Matteo Jorgenson and others. "Paris-Nice is one of the first highlights of the season and is super important for everyone,” Aldag explains. “It’s a very prestigious race to perform in so we aim for the best possible result, with Primož is trying to aim for victory."

"We realise that there’s super strong competition here that we shouldn’t underestimate, and some critical stages that start with the team time trial is super important for the GC as we don’t actually believe that it’s going to be super big time gaps," he concludes. "Then stage 4 is technical. Stages 5 and 6 are more for the sprinters, and then the big showdowns on stages 7 and 8. So we think it’s going to be more about seconds than minutes. We’ll try to be ready and go for it. It’s a new chapter for Primož and Bora-Hansgrohe. We’re all positive for the situation.”