"Primoz was a disruptive factor..." - How 10 years ago at his breakthrough Giro d'Italia, Roglic made an enemy within Visma

In 2016 Team Visma | Lease a Bike signed Primoz Roglic from a Slovenian continental team and had one of the best transfers they could've hoped for. Before the signing and rise of Jonas Vingegaard and Wout Van Aert, it was Roglic who stepped up dramatically once he entered the Dutch team's training program. However racing wise, his first Giro d'Italia was marked by big ups and also downs, as his own leader Steven Kruijswijk was irritated at him.

Roglic showed good quality early in the season with a Top5 at the Volta ao Algarve, however into the Giro d'Italia he was a domestique for the Dutchman and not much was expected of him. However he rode to second in the initial prologue, and then - benefitting from the weather conditions - he took his first World Tour win on the second time trial of the race.

The race was developing perfectly for the at-the-time called Team LottoNL-Jumbo, as Steven Kruijswijk jumped into the pink jersey within the second week, climbing up the mountains of the Corsa Rosa like never before. However within the team there was very much the sense that Roglic was racing the Giro thinking more about his own ambitions, instead of those the team had with Kruijswijk in the fight for the overall win.

"I think 'tension' is a strong word, but you could sense irritation in Steven," Twan Castelijns, former pro who raced that Giro with the duo, shared with Wielerevue. According to him, tensions were quite high. "He said he would never ride at the front for Primoz". Kruijswijk lacked the team support in the high mountains and ultimately, after a crash on the descent of the Colle delle Agnello on stage 19, he had to let go of his race lead in an edition won by Vincenzo Nibali.

"But then again, we didn't know at the time that Primoz would become so good. It was his first year and he was the only one who could follow Robert Gesink during a winter test, but the Giro d’Italia was a journey of discovery for him too," Castelijns adds.

Roglic would later become Visma's undisputed leader, but at this point in time he was still in his first months with the team. Jos van Emden, now retired as a cyclist but working at Visma as a sports director, puts it clearly: "Primoz wasn't the very best teammate". But he justifies his former teammate: "He had no idea what was happening to him. A few years earlier, he was still cleaning escalators… I didn't hold it against him, but he was mainly focused on himself. Moreover, he ‘simply’ won the second time trial. Steven struggled with it more."

In 2016 however this caused a great deal of tension within the team, specially with Kruijswijk losing the Giro outright in the final days when the race lead looked under some control. "He (Kruijswijk, ed.) was about to experience the pinnacle of his career, and Primoz was a disruptive factor in that," van Emden explains. "For example, he was always in pain everywhere. After two weeks, Primoz said his nails and hair were hurting."

However despite the duo's disputes, they would end up racing together all the way into 2023 (when Roglic moved to Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe), teaming up plenty more times and achieving great results together. Kruijswijk supported Roglic in his victory at the 2021 Vuelta a España, as well as the team's overall win at the Tour de France in 2022 - after he let go of his personal ambitions, which culminated with a podium at the 2019 Tour.