18/09/2023

Opinion: Primoz Roglic must ask for a transfer this Monday

Primoz Roglic was the overwhelming favorite to win the Vuelta a Espana before the start of the race in Barcelona. However, he had to settle for third place behind Jumbo-Visma teammates Sepp Kuss and Jonas Vingegaard.

The Slovenian could have made history by equaling Roberto Heras with 4 Vueltas, but at 33 years of age (he will be 34 in October), he had to settle for another podium. Now he will have to decide what he wants to do in the near future and, above all, if he wants to try again to close his career by winning the Tour de France, the only thing he is missing after years in which he has dominated all the races he has competed in, from 1 to 3 weeks.

"Roglič is our king and the king is difficult to let go" - Plugge says there is full intention on team to keep Primoz Roglic onboard

And he won't be able to do that at Jumbo-Visma. Vingegaard, by his own right, has earned the right to be the undisputed leader of the Dutch squad in the Tour and the plan there is going to be clear. We imagine that Primoz thought he had earned the right to do the same in the Vuelta, but Vingo decided to take part and Jumbo played the three-leader card with Kuss, who ultimately won.

Primoz made it quite clear a few days ago that he did not agree with the team's strategy in recent days to work for his colleague Sepp, which has set off all the alarms and rumors of a possible move to Lidl-Trek or (this one much less credible) to Movistar Team.

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The truth is that the ski jumper has 2 years left on his contract with Jumbo and is a very valuable piece for the structure. The only way for him to leave would be to put pressure and we suppose that if he does so he would end up losing money (we can't imagine any team paying more than them at the moment).

So, we do not know if Primoz will continue to condition possible victories to continue in Jumbo next year as has done a Wout van Aert who has been key to the 2 victories of Vingegaard in the Tour but has instead lost chances to win stages and has conditioned his racing style to the Grande Boucle, which has made him less decisive in the classics.

Either that, or he settles for what is there so far, what we have seen this year, or he tries to force his way out to be the undisputed leader in any grand tour he wants to ride. From here we encourage him to force his departure. All the strong guys in the same box is getting boring...