Primoz Roglic: "Remco is a great rider, and I have to be at my very best to compete with him"
Cycling
Primoz Roglic will face Remco Evenepoel this May. The two are the main favourites for the Giro d'Italia and are named so by many due to their all-round capacity, consistency, time-trialing abilities but most of all outstanding climbing power. The Slovenian talks about his competition.
"I have always said that Remco is a great rider, and I have to be at my very best to compete with him. So we'll try to look for that, day after day, and at the end, we'll see what that means in the result," Roglic shared in a lengthy interview with Cyclingnews. "But if we race only against each other, then somebody else can take the opportunity and benefit."
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Evenepoel battled Roglic but couldn't dethrone him at the Volta a Catalunya. The competition will be strong but the two seemed to be the highest performing climbers throughout the spring that will now be at the Gir, however Roglic is asked about INEOS Grenadiers too who come in with a very strong lineup which features Tour of the Alps winner Tao Geoghegan Hart and Geraint Thomas who was on the podium at the Tour de France last summer.
"I didn't really watch the Tour of the Alps, but I also raced against Tao in Tirreno and he was very strong already there," he shares. "So I didn't need any confirmation of what he can do. Tao won the Giro as well, G[eraint Thomas] won the Tour and they're very motivated. Everyone is someone, huh? They don't need to prove they can win the Giro. So I just need to focus on myself, and do my very best, and we'll see what that brings."
The likes of João Almeida, Aleksandr Vlasov, Jack Haig and Hugh Carthy will provide tough competition. With the final few days of the Corsa Rosa being absolutely brutal, the chance for even the very best climbers to crack and lose minutes is real, and no-one has certainty of escaping that situation.
"It's got a special place in my heart. It's a special race, the first victory I had in a Grand Tour was here, and we're so close to Slovenia, it's almost our home race. When I started to dream of being a cyclist, the Giro was what I was aiming for," Roglic concluded.
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