Primoz Roglic's coach Lamberts: "In his own mind the Tour de France is still the main goal"

In two days' time Primoz Roglic will be starting the Giro d'Italia and will be doing so as one of the two main favourites to wear the pink jersey in Rome. However in the back of his mind the Tour de France continues to be present as the priority for 2025 - and the Slovenian may be trying to attempt the same plan and preparation as Tadej Pogacar did in 2024.

Without a doubt, the Giro is the Grand Tour Roglic can most realistically win this year, and he starts with a full-focused squad backing him up including Jai Hindley, Daniel Martínez and Giulio Pellizzari - all men with great reputation in the Corsa Rosa. Still, Roglic's coach Marc Lamberts talked honestly about his goals, preparation and what has changed in the past few years, and shares some very interesting insight on the veteran.

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"Even more, in his own mind the Tour de France is still the main goal. That is the only race he has not yet won," Lamberts told Wielerflits. "In addition, the team was in favor of doing the Giro. Primoz himself made the decision to go for the Giro and Tour. We talked about it for a long time, but I honestly was not in favor of it." At the end of the day it was the decision that was made, and Roglic arrives at the Giro with few race days but a very inspiring performance at the Volta a Catalunya.

In Lamberts' mind, the Giro-Vuelta would've been the most logic option, taking into consideration how well the Spanish Grand Tour suits his abilities. "He always pedals his best values ​​there and has not won there four times for nothing. He finds steeper, short climbs of twenty to thirty minutes there. That suits him a lot better than the Tour and Giro, where you sometimes get climbs of an hour or longer thrown in front of the wheels that are more climbers.

But Roglic is looking for new challenges, and the desire to win the Tour de France is still alive after all these years. "If you have won the Vuelta four times and the Giro once, but not that one race, then it is a legitimate choice to go for the Tour - as long as he can still sit on the bike. Maybe even against his better judgment. And I can follow him in that."

The Slovenian is now 35 years old but it can be realistically argued that he is still riding his very best numbers - above those that almost got him the Tour de France win in 2020. This comes as a result of many changes in training over recent years, specially targeting his weak points.

"He wants to work towards his main goals as well as possible and that has to be done via those altitude training camps. At home you can't get him as good as he used to. Then he no longer reaches his highest level," he admits. "On the other hand, Primoz is also a family man, who has a family with two small children, who he wants to take care of when he is at home. He is already away so much."

"In 2025, racing will be different. If he still had the same profile as five years ago, I don't think he would still be riding in the top 5 in the Grand Tour," Lamberts interestingly adds. "But his training has been adjusted, with more 'durability' and 'fatigue resistance', at the expense of explosiveness. That was necessary, if they always start attacking 50 to 60 kilometers from the end and just keep going."