Primoz Roglic: "I left the best team in the world and now I have a special challenge: to make BORA-hansgrohe the best team"

Primoz Roglic is set to adapt to a new life within pro cycling. After many - and very successful - years with Jumbo-Visma he takes on a new goal. The Slovenian will be the sole team leader with added responsibilities and new ambitions. One of them is to make BORA - hansgrohe the best team in the sport.

“The changes are already visible, I already have a mustache like my boss Ralph Denk," Roglic jokes in a press conference hosted close to home in Slovenia this Wednesday afternoon. "Everyone is super motivated and wants to do everything possible to make something great happen. I left the best team in the world and now I have a special challenge: to make BORA-hansgrohe the best team."

Roglic made the choice to move away from the Dutch team recently, following the events of the Vuelta a Espana. Despite his astonishing success in the first half of 2023, where after recovering his form after a rough winter where he spent months off the bike, he went on to win Tirreno-Adriatico, Volta a Catalunya and the Giro d'Italia. At the Vuelta a Espana he looked to take the win, but a combination of team tactics and orders saw Sepp Kuss take the GC win, and Roglic having to keep himself from attacking the race in the final two mountain stages.

Whilst winning the race overall at that point would've been a difficult task, it was the performances of Jonas Vingegaard and Sepp Kuss which ultimately assured Roglic that he would not likely have again a chance to lead the team at the Tour de France with full focus on himself. That is something he desires, as it is the one Grand Tour missing in his palmarès. Weeks after the end of the Vuelta his move to the German team was announced, a millionaire bombshell.

Roglic has already met up with his new teammates in a team camp on the Austrian Alps, and is resuming training ahead of the season. "We will try to determine my entire program by the end of December," he told reporters on site, "but I think I will stay on what I've done in recent years." It is very likely that he will race the Tour de Suisse ahead of the Tour de France. In the spring, the Ardennes are a possibility, whilst the Slovenian should also be a candidate for the stage-race schedule that he chooses.

Every year he shows a very high level so he does not feel the urge to make big changes. "Apparently, it's working. There are a lot of challenges. The Tour de Suisse, which I have never competed in and which it would be good to include in my list of achievements." He mentions also the post-Tour ideas he has: "There are the World Championships too, as well as the Olympic Games, even if I don't yet know what I will do in Paris. I already have a medal (in the time-trial, not on the road, ed.)."