OPINION | The dream that Primoz Roglic has given up to go all-in for Tour de France 2025
CyclingMonday, 16 June 2025 at 13:02
It is now known that Primoz Roglic will not race the Tour de Suisse 2025. After a disappointing withdrawal from the Giro d'Italia, his initial plan has remained the same, and he will be following a training-based preparation towards the Tour de France.
The Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe leader will go all-in towards the Grande Boucle. With proper preparation in the mountains, the German team and the rider himself believe he is amongst the best placed to compete against Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel.
Primoz Roglic's 'NO' to race the Tour de Suisse is at the same time the renunciation of a dream that would have made him enlarge his name in the Olympus of cyclists. The Slovenian is only missing one of the 'top7' stage-races in his palmarès, and that was the Swiss race. Therefore, he will have to wait at least one more year to try to win it if this is still a goal.
These races are Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico, Volta a Catalunya, Itzulia Basque Country, Tour de Romandie, Criterium du Dauphiné and the one which Roglic has not won yet. Initially, if the Slovenian only rode the Tour, Suisse could've come as a realistic preparation race and with a modest competition.
It's logical that BORA didn't want to take any risks with Roglic. The Giro d'Italia was very tough. Since his crash on the sterrato stage, the Red Bull - BORA star's level only went down and eventually he left the race as a result of his injuries.
In the end, Primoz Roglic crashed again on stage 16, when he was already out of the fight for the overall win, and it was decided that the best thing to do was to abandon a grand tour where he could not revalidate the title he won in 2023.
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Beyond whether or not he can be at the level of the 'Big Three', very complicated especially by Tadej Pogacar, Primoz Roglic has very clear duties in the Tour de France. The Slovenian has fallen too many times in the grand tours, suffering very unexpected and painful withdrawals.
That's what happened to him in the 2024 Tour. It he is not ready for a podium this year, he could at least aim for a Top10.
Original: Jorge Borreguero
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- He has a better shot at winning a stage than Roglic, sadly...bobo25-06-2025
- Horner ain't lyin'...bobo25-06-2025
- Don't forget just how important newspapers have been - pretty much every race has been started by a newspaper. Which means that cyclinguptodate could launch it's own races. I propose a mountain classic in Wales [Cymru] - a 257km long route in Abergavenny [Y Fenni], with a repeated loop of Blorenge [Blorens], thus climbing the Foxhunter [5.2km at 8.7% average, max gradient 19%] 18 times, totalling to 8380m of climbing [that's twice a grand tour queen stage].
Llywelynglyndwr24-06-2025 - If you're riding against Pog, sending your team to the front to "make it hard" doesn't help, it plays into UAE's hands. Do something, literally anything, else!acem8224-06-2025
- If Jonas wins the 'tour... 🤦♂️ - but I don't think he will in the slightest
leedorney24-06-2025 - look at how useful Van Aert can be as a leadout man or sprinter in his own rightLlywelynglyndwr24-06-2025
- Mostly that's because he knows he doesn't have much of a chance, e.g in the olympics. I think that if he had a proper chance to get something out of the mountain stages [i.e if he had a GC leader]Llywelynglyndwr24-06-2025
- Not if you like at the climbing times. Then it's like 2-3%Nomadic1924-06-2025
- I mean, he always stood out for consistency/resilience, not just in 2025. ANd not crashes... I don't recall he crashing.
maria2024202424-06-2025 - Almeida's resilience is phenomenal. I remember a stage of La Vuelta 2023 (l'Angrilu?): he was sick, with a severe cold. The team left him completely alone (discarded). He rode 100km alone, finishing... top 6!. It's usual to see him being dropped/ disappeared, but suddenly, somehow, at the end, arriving in privileged positions. His effort/energy control is brilliant. He's not a super-winner, but he's a fabulous ridermaria2024202424-06-2025
Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe need to take Lipowitz to the tour as a co-leader. Taking into account Lipowitz's performances and Roglič's tendency to crash out, it's not an option to sacrifice Lipowitz should Roglič be in trouble. Lipowitz beat Evenepoel by a significant margin in the Critérium du Dauphiné - I think he can fight for the podium. João Almeida would have to sacrifice himself for Pogačar, while I don't think Skjelmose will be putting much of a showing.